
I 3f^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



THE BOOK OF GAMES 



THE BOOK OF GAMES 

WITH DIRECTIONS HOW TO 
PLAY THEM 



BY 

y 



MARY WHITE 



EIGHTH EDITION 



NEW YORK 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1898 






Copyright, i8g6, 1898, by 
Charles Scribner^s Sons 



14074 




TWO COPIES HECEIVED- 



TROW DIRECTORY 
NG AND BOOKBINDINQ COMPANY 



sTfeixva 



■S 9^ V D ^^% 



PREFATORY NOTE TO THE EIGHTH 
EDITION 

To the game-loving people who so kindly 
welcomed the first appearance of this little 
book (under the title, " The Book of a Hun- 
dred Games"), I send my warmest thanks. 
That it was so cordially received in England, 
the paradise of sports, has been most gratify- 
ing, and this encourages me to send it forth 
again with fifteen additional games and a new 
dress. 

M. W. 

Bay Ridge, August 9, 1898. 



PREFACE 

The object of this Httle book is to give, to 
those who need them, a number of new games, 
with changes rung on the old favorites. It 
came to be written in this way. Some two 
years ago twenty people, particularly choice 
and congenial spirits, gravitated together and 
called themselves the Game Club. It was 
hardly a club, except in name, for there were 
no officers, and no dues, and no quarrels; but 
all were agreed upon a few necessary points. 
All felt that they cared more for games than 
for dancing. All were ready to lay aside 
their dignity and vanity for the sake of mak- 
ing games a success. All agreed that the meet- 
ings should be fortnightly and each time at a 
different member's house. All agreed to agree. 

And so the Game Club grew and prospered 
until it had played all the games in old and 



X Preface 

new game-books, and then it made games for 
itself and sometimes made over the old ones. 

Two years is a good old age for a Game 
Club, and yet it still lives and flourishes, and 
from its experience it sends you The Book of 

a Hundred Games. 

M. W. 
Bay Ridge, N. Y., January 25, 1896. 



CONTENTS 

PART I 
Games Requiring Preparation 

PAGE 

I. Guessing Match, , . 3 

II. Missing Letters, 4 

III. Butterflies, 6 

IV. The Most Improbable Story, 8 

V. Memory, 10 

VI. Living Catalogue, 11 

VII. Animate Art, 12 

VIII. Silhouettes, 14 

IX. Twisted Animals, 17 

X. Industrial Fair, .18 

XL Soap-bubbles, 20 

XII. Geographical Letters, . 22 

XIII. Newspaper, 25 

XIV. Sequels to Mother Goose's Rhymes, ... 31 
XV. Three Rhyming Games, 33 

XVI. Fan-ball, 37 

XVII. Intercollegiate Foot-ball, . ..... 39 

xi 



xii Contents 



PAGE 



XVIII. Parodies,. .......... 42 

XIX. Bouquet, 43 

XX. Mirth, 45 

XXI. Vice Versa, 46 

XXII. Progressive Puzzles, 48 

XXIII. Eye-guessing, 49 

XXIV. The Objective Library, ...... 51 

XXV. Initials, 54 

XXVI. Auction, 56 

XXVII. Commerce, 58 

XXVIII. Stray Syllables, 60 

XXIX. Baby Show, 61 

XXX. Palette, 63 

XXXI. China Painting, 65 

XXXII. Shadow Pictures, 66 

XXXIII. Silhouettes in Disguise, 70 

XXXIV. What would you do if ? .... 71 

XXXV. Songs for Several Singers, 73 

XXXVI. Who am I? 74 

XXXVII. Location, 75 

XXXVIII. Fashion Notes 76 

XXXIX. Composite Pictures, 78 

XL. A Penny for Your Thoughts, .... 79 

XLI. Alliterative Literature, 81 

XLII. Sight Unseen, 83 



Contents xiii 

PAGE 

XLIII. Household Fragrance, 84 

XLIV. Flags of All Nations, 86 

XLV. Blockade, 87 

XLVI. Domestic Architecture, 89 

XLVII. Blind Artists, 90 

XLVIII. Buying Forfeits, 91 

XLIX. A Boy's Pockets, 92 

L. Personal Preference Pictures, 93 

LI. Peanut Hunt, » . . 94 

LII. Zoological Game, 95 

LIII. Conundrums, 96 

LIV. Compositions, 97 

LV. Broken Quotations, 98 

LVI. Photograph Whist, 99 

LVII. Celebrities, 100 

LVIII. Planting Peanuts, 101 

LIX. Patchwork Illustration, 102 

LX. Swaps, 103 

LXI. Nicknames of Cities, 105 

LXII. Biography, 106 

LXIII. Talking Shop, 107 

LXIV. Natural History, . o. o , .... 109 



xiv Contents 

PART II 
Impromptu Games 

PAGE 

LXV. A Spoonful of Fun, ..113 

LXVI. Trades, 114 

LXVII. What is My Thought Like ? 115 

LXVIII. Personal Conundrums, 117 

LXIX. Cities, 117 

LXX. Jenkins, II8 

LXXI. Short Stories, 120 

LXXII. The Impossible Cat, 122 

LXXIII. Famous Characters, 123 

LXXIV. Stuff and Nonsense, 124 

LXXV. Theatrical Titles of Books, .... 126 

LXXVI. Orchestra, 127 

LXXVII. Bequests, 128 

LXXVIII. Teapot, 129 

LXXIX. Dumb Motions, ,. l3o 

LXXX. Scouts, 131 

LXXXI. Commercial Traveller, 132 

LXXXII. The Seasons, 134 

LXXXIII. Who is My Neighbor ? 135 

LXXXIV. How? Where? When? 137 

LXXXV. Nonsense Rhymes, 138 

LXXXVl. Button, Button, Negatively, .... 139 
LXXXVII. Gardening, 140 



Contents xv 

PAGE 

LXXXVIII. Philopena, 141 

LXXXIX. Cross-questions and Silly Answers, . .142 

XC. Spirits, 144 

XCI. Wordy Word, 146 

XCII. Advice 147 

XCIII. Fire, 148 

XCIV. It, 149 

XCV. Telegrams, 151 

XCVI. Boston Telegrams, 152 

XCVII. Postman, ., ... 153 

XCVIII. Barber Shop, « . 155 

XCIX. Royal Lady, 156 

C. Horn Monkey, 157 

CI. Useless Information, 158 



PART III 
Games for Special Occasions 



CII. New Year's Resolutions, 
cm. St. Valentine's Day, . . . 
CIV. Washington's Birthday, . . 

CV. April First, 

CVI. Hallowe'en, 

CVII. Topsy-turvy and Christmas Party, 
CVIII. A Children's Party for Grown People, 



161 

162 
165 
167 
168 
173 
175 



xvi Contents 

PART IV 
Old Favorites for Children 

PAGE 

CIX. My Lady's Toilet , . . 179 

ex. Hunt the Whistle, „ ... 180 

CXI. Bookbinder, 181 

CXII. Blowing the Feather, 182 

CXIII. Magic Music, 183 

CXIV. Animals, 185 

CXV. Trolley-car, 186 

SOME FORFEITS, 189 



PART I 
GAMES REQUIRING PREPARATION 



Guessing Match 

Materials Required : As many sheets of 
paper and pencils as there are players; a prize 
appropriate for a lady or gentleman. 

A number of articles of unknown size, quan- 
tity, dimensions, weight, age, etc., are arranged 
on a table. The full particulars about these 
articles the leader has, of course, ascertained. 
Then the company are invited to view, handle, 
and examine the articles and guess as to their 
respective details. Every article should be 
numbered so that the guesses may be written 
on a slip of paper by each person, opposite 
corresponding numbers. The best guesser, of 
course, wins the prize. 

The following articles are suggested, and 
others will readily occur to anyone : 

1, Number of beans in a glass jar; 2, weight of 
Webster's Unabridged Dictionary; 3, length of a ball 



4 Tloe Book of Games 

of twine; 4, number of playing-cards in a paclc, from 
which several have been taken; 5, height of a pole; 
6, number of seeds in an orange ; 7, quantity of water 
in a pail ; 8, number of pins in a pin-cushion ; 9, age of 
a cat (or dog or baby) ; 10, how long a piece of candle 
will burn; 11, denomination of a postage-stamp turned 
face downward ; 12, photographs of famous people 
whose names are better known than their faces. 



II 

Missing Letters 

Materials Required : As many pencils and 
written or type-written lists as there are players ; 
a prize. 

This is an English game, played by our 
cousins over the water. Here it is, imported 
and Americanized. The players take seats in 
a circle, and a pencil is given to each one, with 
a sheet of paper on which has been written or 
type-written, preferably the latter, a list like 
the following : 

MISSING LETTERS 
(X represents the missing letters) 

1. Ma^c (first in every home). 

2. Lxxe (couldn't live without it). 



Missing Letters 



3. Xx\t (the more you take from it the larger it 
gets). 

4. Xoox (it's all over the house). 

5. Loooc (found in the suburbs). 

6. A'ra^t (gives a cold, cures a cold, and pays the 
doctor). 

7. A'eaxty (desirable for unattractive women). 

8. A'rxxs (that for which women spend too much 
money). 

9. Lxnxs (near to every maiden's heart). 

10. Txaxsxbxtxnxixtxoxaxlxnxsx (longest word in 
the English language). 

It will readily be seen that there are several 
possible answers to each word, but the real key 
is as follows : 

1. Mat. 4. Roof. 7. Realty. 

2. Life. 5. Lots. 8. Dress. 

3. Hole. 6. Draft. 9. Lungs. 

10. Transubstantiationableness. 

The players are requested to write the an- 
swers as they guess them against the words in 
their lists, and one of their number, either the 
host or a leader chosen from among the play- 
ers who is familiar with the key, waits in 
readiness to correct the papers as they are 



6 The Book of Games 

handed to him by the contestants. The lists 
may be corrected as many times as is neces- 
sary, for everyone can guess again until one 
person succeeds in writing all the answers cor- 
rectly. 

A prize may, in fact should, be given to the 
winner in this brain -developing exercise, and 
an appropriate award is one of the puzzles 
which abound in street " fakirs' " carts. 



Ill 

Butterflies 



Materials Required : As many sheets of 
note-paper as there are players ; the same nuinber 
of sheets of stout brown paper, 6 by g inches in size ; 
a palette or plate j the scrapings of paint from ati 
artist's palette, or one tube each of the following 
oil-paints: white, vermilion, new blue, yellow, 
crimsoti lake ; a palette-knife ; several paper- 
knives j a prize in the form of a butterfly, if 
desired. 

A favorite game with the art students in 
Paris is making butterflies. They take sheets 
of note-paper or brown paper and the paints 



Butterflies 7 

left on their palettes at the close of the day, 
or tubes taken haphazard from a paint-box; 
then, folding the pieces of paper exactly through 
the centre, they put a bit of paint (composed of 
several colors and about as much as would 
cover a five -cent piece) on the inside of the 
paper near the place where it is folded and 
just in the centre; then, pressing the paper 
closely together, they hold it to the light, when 
it shows just where the paint is. Taking a 
clean palette-knife or paper-knife and starting 
at the fold in the paper, they press the paint 
outward and upward in the form of a butter- 
fly's wing, the upper one, as though the but- 
terfly were seen in profile ; and starting again in 
the same place, but pressing downward, they 
get the lower and smaller wing. When all 
this is done and when held up to the light a 
fairly well-formed butterfly is seen, the papers 
are opened and there is a perfect butterfly with 
spread wings! If plenty of paint has been 
used there will be ridges quite suggestive of 
scales on the butterfly's wings, and the color 
combinations are often wonderfully beautiful. 
With brown paper (heavy, glazed is the best) 



8 The Book of Games 

bits of white paint will show up well, and inter- 
esting varieties of the white butterfly will re- 
sult. 

A prize in the form of a butterfly may or 
may not be given to the person who has made 
the most beautiful butterfly, but if the players 
add their autographs to the painted butterflies 
they have made, their hostess will have an 
interesting collection of souvenirs of the occa- 
sion and one well worth keeping. 



IV 

The Most Improbable Story 

Materials Required: As 7nany pe7icils and 
sheets of paper as there are players j a prize. 

When all are seated in a circle and all pro- 
vided with pencils and paper, it is announced 
that this is a competition, and that the one who 
writes the most improbable story in twenty 
minutes gets the prize, When the time is up 
the papers are collected and redistributed so 



The Most Improbable Story 9 

that each player gets some other player's story, 
and they are then read aloud. The writer of 
the most improbable — not the most interest- 
ing or the cleverest, but the most improbable 
— story is the prize winner. 
Here is an example : 

A LION HUNT 

In the year 1927 a young man was seen slowly mean- 
dering rapidly down Twenty-third Avenue, in Greater 
New York, on the back of a camel with a long tail 
and gold eyeglasses. In his right hand he carried a can- 
non and in his other an umbrella. He was a young man 
for his age, but looked older. His costume consisted of 
a coat-of-arms and knickerbockers of the same, and on 
his head he wore a red cap made of black sheet-iron. 
In his face was a look of grim determination and a corn- 
cob pipe. As he neared the corner in the middle of the 
block a mighty roar like the sound of a Jersey mosquito 
reached his ear — in fact his two ears — and simulta- 
neously or sooner four hundred and seven real live 
lions with angry tails and mounted on nice red wooden 
wheels rushed out right straight at him and announced 
their sad determination to eat him all up. He said not 
a word nor anything else, but just aimed his cannon 
and pulled the spigot, and when the votes were all in 
and the smoke of battle cleared away all were dead or 
slain outright or mortally wounded. 



lo The Book of Games 

V 

Memory 

Materials Required: Twenty small articles, 
such as scissors, tape-measure, ink-stand, thimble, 
calendar, paper of pins, spectacle-case, pill-box, 
tack-hammer, knife, candlestick, etc.; as many 
sheets of paper and pencils as there are guests y 
a prise. 

In the middle of a room adjoining the one 
in which you are to receive your guests place 
a round table, and on it arrange twenty small 
articles, very much assorted. As many sheets 
of paper as there are to be guests should be 
numbered down the left-hand side from 1 to 
20. Keep the doors between the rooms closed 
until all the guests have arrived, when the 
doors may be thrown open and all asked to 
go into the room where the table is, and to 
look carefully at the exhibition of articles 
for three minutes. At the end of that time 
everybody is sent back to the other room, 
the doors are again closed and each one re- 
ceives one of the numbered sheets of paper 
and is requested to write from memory a list 



Living Catalogue ii 

of the things seen on the table. Ten minutes is 
the time allowed for this, and then a true list 
of the articles is read and each person corrects 
his or her own paper. To the one who has 
remembered most a prize may be given. 



VI 

Living Catalogue 

All the guests should be asked, when they 
are bidden to this party, to come dressed to 
represent the titles of books. Each person 
should be thoroughly acquainted with the book 
he or she represents, so that, as far as possible, 
the idea of the book may be carried out in the 
actions of the impersonator. At the end of the 
evening a vote should be taken as to who de- 
serves the prize for the most original costume. 

A few suggestions of books may not be out 
of place here, although in any library catalogue 
will be found plenty of original and easily 
represented titles : 

"A Woman's Reason," Howells— by the word "Be- 
cause" worked on the belt or girdle. 



12 T}?e Book of G^mes 

•* Roundabout Papers," Thackeray — may be repre- 
sented by a deep necklace of papers worn by the player 
who chooses this title. 

*' Twice-Told Tales," Hawthorne — by \\earing- strings 
of the lai'ge French chestnuts all over the costume. 

" Cast Up by the Sea " — by shells, sea- weed, old cans, 
etc., disposed about the costume. 

"Tired of Housekeeping," T. S. Arthur — advertise- 
ments of Board Wanted should be cut from many 
papers and sewed all over the dress. 

" A Tale of Two Cities,'' Dickens — is easily ari-anged 
by fastening a New ^'ork newspaper at the neck, in 
front, and a Boston paper at the back in the same way, 
the general elfect being Uke a "sandwich-man" ready 
for work. 

"The Charge of the Light Brigade," Tennyson— by 
gas-bills sewed thickly all over the dress. 



VII 

Anim.ate Art 



Materials Required : Itnpromptufoot-lights^ 
which may be tiuo lamps wiih reflectors; cu7'tain; 
back-curtain of dark chih. 

When inviting 3'our guests to the party at 
which this game is to be given, ask each per- 
son to come prepared to pose as a tigure in 



Animate Art 13 

some well-known picture. If there are two or 
more from the same family invited so much 
the better, for then they can represent a pict- 
ure containing several figures. Each guest, of 
course, brings his or her own costume. The 
hostess or some one of the guests may be 
stage-manager. There will be little to arrange 
if you have two rooms with folding-doors or 
portieres between, for the curtain can then be 
done away with. The most important thing 
is to have a good strong light, foot-light lamps, 
or, failing this, two reflector-lamps, to be ar- 
ranged at the sides. A dark cloth curtain 
should be hung as a background about four 
feet behind the front curtain, and an improve- 
ment and elaboration is a third curtain of black 
netting or gauze, which, if stretched between 
the audience and the tableaux, softens and 
adds to the effect of the latter. 

The following are a few suggestions for 
subjects : 

"When I was a Bachelor," from Mother Goose; a 
picture representing the hnes — 

•* I was forced to bring my wife home in a wheelbarrow, 
The wheelbarrow broke ! " 



14 The Booh of Games 

" Spring," as she is depicted in the patent-medicine 
advertisements, rosy and smiling, and taking a dose of 
spring medicine. 

"An Aztec Fragment," angular, seated figure, with 
costume and attitude copied from Aztec or Egyptian 
pictures ; one hand pointed forward, the other holding 
lotus-flower with a stem like a corkscrew. 



VIII 
Silhouettes 



Materials Required: As many sheets of 
silhouette-paper (dull black on one side and white 
on the other) as there are players ; a lamp with 
reflector; a pencil ; four thumb-tacks j one pair 
of scissors J as many large sheets of white card- 
board as there are players ; fifty beans in an en- 
velope for each player ; a bottle of mucilage. 

Sheets of the dull-black paper, called silhou- 
ette-paper and mentioned in the Zoological 
Game (which see), are needed for this game, 
one apiece for each member of the party, 
and a few over in case of accident. One 
of the party who is quick and clever with his 
pencil is chosen artist, and he selects for a 
studio some place where there is a large stretch 



Silhouettes 15 

of wall. A strong lamp with a reflector having 
been provided, all other lights are put out, and 
one by one the players come to have their 
silhouettes cut. A sheet of the silhouette -paper, 
white side out, is pinned to the wall with a 
thumb-tack at each corner. The lamp is so 
arranged that a person seated parallel with the 
wall and from six inches to a foot from it will 
cast a clear black shadow on the white paper. 
The artist then draws rapidly the profile as it 
is cast, the sitter keeping as quiet as possible. 
Another one of the party cuts these profiles 
out, along the pencilled outlines, or each per- 
son may cut his or her own. 

When all are finished they may be pasted to 
sheets of white cardboard and an exhibition of 
them arranged in an adjoining room. After- 
ward an auction sale of these works of art is 
held, fifty beans apiece being provided for 
money, and this can be made very amusing 
if the auctioneer is a good one. 

ANOTHER VERSION OF THE SAME GAME 

This game has been played quite as satis- 
factorily in a somewhat different way. The 



1 6 The Book of Games 

materials required are the same as for the first, 
except there are no beans needed, and there 
should be : 

As many slips of paper as there are players ; 
several pairs of scissors ; half as rnajty pencils as 
there are players ; twice as many thumb-tacks as 
there are players ; two or more lamps ; two 
prizes for lady and gentleman. 

As the guests arrive there are two bowls 
filled with slips of paper, one for the gentle- 
men and the other for the ladies. Every slip 
is numbered, and there are duplicates of the 
ladies' numbers in the gentlemen's bowl ; thus 
everyone draws a partner. Each person re- 
ceives a sheet of silhouette -paper, a pencil, 
and four thumb-tacks; and each then draws 
the other's silhouette as before described, cuts 
it out, pastes it, black side out, on a sheet of 
white cardboard, and the pairs of silhouettes 
are then exhibited. A committee, chosen from 
the players, decides which pair of portraits is 
the best, and the lady and gentleman who 
made them each win a prize. 



Twisted Animals 



17 



IX 

Twisted Animals 

Materials Required : As many pencils and 
type-written lists as there are guests ; a prize. 

Type-written lists like the following are pre- 
pared for this game : 



1. 


Peesh. 


6. Torte. 


11. 


Parti. 


2. 


Duggop. 


7. Rugaja. 


12. 


Kacopec. 


3. 


Roast Slab. 


8. Aimcosh. 


13. 


Somsoup. 


4. 


Leap Then. 


9. Grabed. 


14. 


Unnepig. 


5. 


Firfage. 


10. Retirer. 


15. 


Ricecoldo. 



Also this key, which is kept in the host's pos- 
session : 

1. Sheep. 6. Otter. 11. Tapir. 

2. Pug dog. 7. Jaguar. 12. Peacock. 

3. Albatross. 8. Chamois. 13. Opossum. 

4. Elephant. 9- Badger. 14. Penguin. 

5. Giraffe. 10. Terrier. 15. Crocodile. 

Each guest receives a list and pencil on ar- 
riving, and the host explains that the object 
of the game is to straighten out the animals' 
names and write them in regular order below 



1 8 The Book of Games 

the " twisted " list. In twenty minutes the 
papers should be finished, signed, and hand- 
ed to the host or leader, who redistributes 
them, giving each person another's paper. 
The key is then read aloud, the correct 
names on each paper are checked off, and 
a prize is given to the person who has un- 
twisted the most animals. 



X 

Industrial Fair 

Materials Required : As many blank cards 
as there are players j Architect^ pencil and paper ; 
Rug-maker, canvas six inches square^ colored 
worsteds, and needle ; Boat-builder, piece of wood 
and a knife ; Potter, lump of clay ; Dressmaker, 
piece of silk or cotton, needle, thread, and scis- 
sors ; Milliner, doll's hat and trijnming ; Shoe- 
maker, piece of kid or chamois, needle, thread, and 
scissors ; Jeweller, box of colored beads, needle, 
and thread ; Glove-maker, piece of undressed 
kid with thread of same color, 7ieedle, and scis- 
sors J Tailor, piece of cloth, scissors, needle, and 
thread ; Inventor, paper and pencil ; Land- 
scape Gardener, pencil and paper J Printer, small 



Industrial Fair 19 

stamping or printing outfit j Builder^ box cf 

blocks. 

This game involves some trouble in the 
preparation, but the hostess will receive a full 
return in the amusement which she will afford 
her guests. The plan is to assign a trade to 
each person, with materials with which to make 
some article appropriate to such trade. Cards 
may be written beforehand, with a trade on 
each ; these the players draw from a bowl, one 
apiece; then, presenting them to the hostess, 
each player receives the materials prepared for 
his or her trade and the game begins in earnest. 

Seated about a table or round the room the 
players work at their trades for a given time — 
an hour is not too long. At the end of this 
time the manufactured articles are all collected 
and an exhibition of them is arranged. A 
committee, chosen from among the exhib- 
itors, decides upon the best article, and a prize 
is awarded to the maker of it. A number 
of suggestions for trades are given under 
'' Materials Required," and others will readily 
occur to one's mind. The trades are given 
indiscriminately, and it is very amusing to see 



20 The Book of Games 

an unfortunate gentleman awkwardly trim- 
ming; a hat or making a tidy or dress, while 
a lady as boat-builder whittles with unac- 
customed fingers. 



XI 

SOAP-BUBBLES 



Materials Required : As many day pipes 
as there are players, and several over in case of 
accide7it ; a bowl of soap and water j simple 
prizes for each event. 

It is a relief sometimes to find a game that 
does not require any intellectual etTort. If you 
are looking for such a game stop here, for soap- 
bubbles will cure mental exhaustion. There 
should be clay pipes for all the players, and a 
few over in case of breakage. A huge bowl 
of soap and water, made very soapy with the 
kind of soap that '' floats," should be placed 
on a small table in a convenient place. The 
pipes are tied with ribbons and the players 
may match ribbons to find their partners, who 



Soap-Buhbles 21 

strive together for the prizes, which are given 
for the largest bubble, the bubble that goes 
highest, for the one that lasts longest, for the 
most bubbles from one dip of the pipe, and 
for the most beautiful coloring in a bubble. 

If it is possible to arrange for this party out- 
of-doors it is a fascinatingly pretty sight, and 
with a light wind the bubbles will float for 
a long time. The party can be divided into 
two sides for a soap-bubble contest. At a sig- 
nal given by the umpire all dip their pipes and 
blow, and the side which blows the largest 
bubble wins. On a tennis-court the two sides 
can play against each other, both trying to pre- 
vent their opponents' bubbles from coming on 
their sides of the net. Every bubble floating 
over in this way counts fifteen points for the 
side which started it. The ladies make the 
bubbles and the gentlemen stand close to the 
net to blow their own bubbles over and pre- 
vent their opponents' bubbles from coming 
into their territory. In-doors this game may 
be played by dividing a room with a cord 
or ribbon stretched across the middle, as the 
tennis-net divides a court. 



22 The Book of Games 

XII 

Geographical Letters 

Materials Required : A box of anagram 
letters ; a prize. 

This game can be played by as many peo- 
ple as can be seated comfortably around a 
dining-room table. From a bowl filled with 
anagram letters the leader throws one letter on 
the table, face up, and the player who first 
calls a geographical noun beginning with that 
letter takes the letter. No noun may be given 
twice. When the bowl is empty each player 
counts his letters, and the one who has the 
most receives a prize. 

THE PROGRESSIVE VERSION 

This game may be elaborated by making it 
progressive. 

Materials Required : Two boxes of ana- 
gram letters j as jnany cards and progra?nme- 



Geographical Letters 23 

pencils as there are players ; half as many yards 
of different colored narrow ribbon as there are 
players ; a first prize and a booby prize. 

For the benefit of those who have never 
played progressive euchre or other progressive 
games, or have forgotten how to play them, 
the following description is given : 

The number of guests invited should be 
divisible by four, so that there may be 
just enough to play the game and none 
over. 

Divide your list of guests by four and the 
answer will be the number of small tables nec- 
essary to have ready. Arrange these about 
your room — suppose there are twenty-four 
guests and six tables — one will be the Head 
Table, the next the Second, next the Third, 
Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and last. Provide as many 
blank cards as there are guests, number four 
of them " No. 1 " for the head table, and tie 
through two of these bows of one color of 
ribbon, with a small pencil attached to each ; 
through the other pair, two ribbons of another 
color with pencils, and proceed in the same 
way for the cards for all the other tables. 



24 The Book of Games 

Now take half of these cards, one of each of 
the two colors provided for every table, and 
put them in a bowl, from which, as the ladies 
arrive, each takes one. From another bowl 
(into which has been put the other half of the 
cards) the gentlemen each take a card, and 
then match ribbons to find their partners. Take 
two boxes of anagram letters and divide into 
six parts, putting one part on each table in a 
bowl or other dish. 

When all are ready the hostess rings a 
bell and the game, as previously described, 
begins. When the players at the head table 
have finished the bell is again rung and the 
players at the other tables must stop too. 
The winning players at the Head Table stay 
where they are, the defeated ones go to the 
Sixth Table, and the winners at all the other 
tables go up one toward the Head Table. At 
each change of tables a change of partners 
takes place, and the players mark their cards 
one game lost or won as the case may be. At 
the end of an hour or half an hour, as the hostess 
may decide, the person who has won the most 
games receives a prize, and the one who has 



Newspaper 25 

/ost most receives a booby prize. A sugges- 
tion for the latter is a primary geography or a 
small globe. 



XIII 

Newspaper 



Materials Required : As many pencils and 
sheets of foolscap paper as there are players. 

The making of a newspaper may not be 
amusing in itself, but a game based on it is 
delightfully so. It is played in this way. At 
the top of sheets of foolscap paper (as many 
as there are to be players) the names of dif- 
ferent departments of a daily paper are writ- 
ten, one on each. These sheets and a pencil 
apiece are then distributed among the players 
with the request that they shall each write an 
article according to the headings furnished 
them. In half an hour all the articles must be 
finished and handed to the host, or one of the 
players previously appointed Editor-in-Chief. 
The paper is then read aloud. For example : 



26 The Book of Games 

EXCELSIOR 

VOL.1. NO. 1 PRICELESS 

EDITORIAL 

OUR NAME 

We present this morning the initial number of our 
journal, which is dedicated to sound politics, the brave 
and the true. For this reason we have selected as a 
name for our gentle fledgling "Excelsior/' after a 
famous poem written in Camden, N. J., by James Whit- 
comb Reilly. The editor made, but a few short months 
ago, a journey to our ancient home in Cambridge, Mass., 
on the banks (still solvent) of the Concord. While 
breathing the rarefied air of this thrice-blessed locality, 
hallowed by memories which have made it famous the 
world over, the idea of starting this journal was born. 
Its mission is to bring the material world to a true 
reaUzation of the beautiful as set forth by the works of 
our New England forefathers, still exemplified in the 
daily life of the present generation. We can promise a 
fair and liberal treatment to all men, women, and kids. 
Subscription, $2.00 a year, payable in cash. No farm 
produce taken at more than fifty per cent, discount. 

OUR CIRCULATION 
HIGH-WATER MARK, 7,250,000 COPIES HOURLY 

The attention of our readers may properly be called to 
certain contemporaries which by disgraceful sensational 



Newspaper 27 

methods have leaped to notoriety and great wealth at a 
single bound. Our popularity has been won by adher- 
ing to principles in accord with the sound judgment 
and practical good sense of the nation. We stand by 
Grover Cleveland, the McKinley tariff, and paper money, 
and presently a fifty-four-story building will arise in 
Newspaper Row to attest the financial soundness of our 
platform. In the meantime our books are open for the 
inspection of a suspicious public. Since Jumbo's death 
we may justly claim the largest circulation in the United 
States; certainly the silver dollar is not " in it" with us, 
nor the Ferris wheel. 



WEATHER REPORT 

Fair to stormy ; northeasterly winds, changing to due 
east. Fair, southerly winds in south of New York; 
showery, with fair weather. High gales along the East- 
ern coast, with mild weather. A probable blizzard will 
arrive between October and June, coming from north- 
west, with warm, light rains ; slightly cooler and clear. 



ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS 

To A. Tough : It is not considered etiquette in the 
best circles for a gent to wear his hat in a lady's 
parlor. 

To S. Tistics : If a man had walked through all the 
grounds and buildings at the Columbian Exposition 
he would have traversed more than four billion miles. 



28 The Book of Games 

To Penny Ante : Poker can be played by any num- 
ber. It is not considered good form to have more than 
four aces in any one hand. 



LITERATURE OF THE DAY 

A NEW BOOK BY P. SMITH 

" Ice-cream and Cherries," by P. Smith, is a book well 
worthy the perusal of— of— others I Mr. Smith's brill- 
iant style here eclipses itself, also its author, likewise its 
reader, as, for instance, in the following lines: "Life," 
says P. S., " is chiefly made up of three things. Game 
Club, Ice-cream, and Cherries." That no household can 
afford to lose these gemlets and many more of like and 
unlike nature will be readily appreciated by the intelli- 
gent reader. It is a book for the young, a book for the 
old, the gray-haired and green-eyed alike, as well as all 
other idiots who will pay |l.SO in cash. 



THE WOMAN'S OWN PAGE 

USEFUL HOUSEHOLD RECIPES 
To mjf Dear Shut-ins : 

There are so many odds and ends, dear sisters, that 
we carelessly throw in the trash-basket that if we only 
knew what to do with them how much prettier our 
homes would be. For instance, sardine-cans could be 
tastefully gilded, lined with some pretty colored silk left 
over from our last year's bonnet, and with a bow of 
some contrasting shade tied round the half-open cover, 
could be made the receptacle of hair-pins, playing-cards, 



Newspaper 29 

toothpicks, or the like. Or an old starch-box, neatly 
covered with carpet, would greatly add to our comfort 
as a foot-rest. Save your tomato-cans ; they are useful 
in a thousand ways. Take a soap-box for the cover 
and add four legs made of tomato-cans carefully wired 
together ; then, with an exquisite cover of fine linen and 
ribbon tastefully tied so as to hide the legs, what better 
five-o'clock tea-table could one 'improvise? Why not 
take an old can that once held peas, burnish it up, and 
use it on this self-same table for a spoon-holder ? 

I have no doubt, my dear sisters, that I could give 
you many more useful ideas, but the time is limited and 
we shall have to wait for another two weeks before I can 
tell you how very useful your husband's high silk hats 
are as trash-baskets, the gridirons as catch-alls, and 
many more such trifles. With every wish for your 
success, I am, faithfully yours, 

Eliza Ann. 

OUR COSEY CORNER 

A STORY 

Mr. La Grange was sitting at his desk one cold, blus- 
tering day in June ; his thoughts were far away. Run- 
ning his slender fingers through his dark-brown curls 
he turned again to his work with a sigh. He was weary, 
very weary of the cold, cold, unappreciative world. He 
was an artist, and his work had not met with the favor 
which his soul craved. He called his office-boy to his 
side with these words : " George, the Game Club meets 



30 The Book of Games 

at my house, the dining-room ceiling has fallen, the 
baby is ill, and I prefer death to going home," and, 
pressing a dollar into his hand, he disappeared. 

{To be continued.) 



ADVERTISEMENTS 

Wanted — A girl to do sewing. Must bring her own 
machine ; must understand new sleeves and use of fibre 
chamois ; must be expert on boys' knees and trousers. 
Will pay $5.00 per day and no questions asked. No type- 
writers need apply. Address, P. D. Q., Excelsior office. 

* * * 

Wanted— Naval recruits. The United States Navy 
wants recruits and wants them bad. Applicants must 
be between the ages of one and a hundred, vouched for 
by someone who knows them, but need not expect to 
ship if subject to " whooping-cough." They will proba- 
bly be required to go out of sight of land, and if they 
die en route will be buried at sea. It is not necessary 
to know how to swim. Come one, come all ! Bring 
your friends and spread the news. Good pay, good 
grub, and Uncle Sam to look after you ! 

* * * 
TOTHERLAND'S DOG RENOl^ATOR 

For Restoring Hair to Mangy Curs 

Warranted to raise a beautiful furry coat on skins pre- 
viously as smooth as a marble-topped washstand. 
Suitable also for Bald Heads 
no cure, no pay 

The following letter, from a distinguished citizen of 
this metropolis, speaks volumes : 



Sequels to Mother Goose's Rhymes 31 

X. Y. TOTHERLAND, ESQ., 
Proprietor of Totherland's Dog Renovator. 

Dear Sir : Being afflicted with a scarcity of hair at an 
early age I was induced to try your preparation by an 
advertisement in Excelsior. After using only eighteen 
botties I find a marked improvement in my hirsute 
attachment, so much so as to cause remarks of admira- 
tion from my friends. I liave also been quite successful 
with my large Mexican hairless dog. After applying 
half a bottle of your valuable compound the hair grew 
on him so thickly that he has been mistaken for a Saint 
Bernard and is a great terror to burglars. You are at 
liberty to use this letter. 

Faithfully yours, 

I. M. Bauld. 
* * * 

Situation Wanted by a young man to tend hens. 
Can whistle. 



XIV 

Sequels to Mother Goose's Rhymes 

Materials Required : As many pencils and 
sheets of foolscap paper as there are players j 
Mother Gooseys Nursery Rhymes ; a prize. 

A rhyming game with plenty of " go " in it 
is given below. Before your guests arrive 
take as many sheets of paper as there are 
to be guests; at the top of each sheet write 



32 The Book of Games 

the last stanza of a nursery rhyme, a diflferent 
one on each paper. For example : 

" He put in his thumb 
And pulled out a plum, 
And said, ' What a good boy am I.' " 

You will doubtless need a copy of Mother 
Goose to refer to. When the guests have ar- 
rived a pencil and one of the papers with a 
verse at the top are given to each, and they 
are told that the point of the game is to write 
a sequel to the nursery rhyme each will find 
on his paper, the time allowed being half an 
hour. 

When this is done the papers are collect- 
ed and the verses read aloud. A prize for 
the best rhyme may be given by a committee 
on awards, chosen from among the players. 
Here is an example : 

SEQUEL TO " LITTLE JACK HORNER " 

" Jack, little sinner, 
After that dinner 

Eaten alone, on the sly — 
Was ill of remorse 
And dyspepsia, of course. 

Did he take soda-mint — or just die?'* 



Three Rhyming Games zz 

XV 

Three Rhyming Games 

Endless amusement and infinite variety are 
to be found in rhyming games. Tiie hostess 
has only to provide pencils and paper, with 
perhaps a prize, and her guests will do the 
rest. Three games of this kind are here given. 

NUMBER ONE 

Materials Required : As many slips of 
paper aiid pencils as there are players ; a prise y 
if desired. 

The players, being provided with pencils and 
slips of paper, take seats in an irregular circle 
around the room. Each person is then asked 
to write a noun at the top of his paper, fold it 
back and hand it to his right-hand neighbor, 
who writes a question and passes the paper 
again to the right — to a player who is asked to 
write a stanza or more of poetry (!) containing 
the noun at the top of the paper and answer- 
ing the question written below it. Fifteen 
minutes is the time allowed, and when time is 



34 The Book of Games 

up the rhymes are collected and read aloud. 
For example : 

Noun— Game Club. Question— Where is your Sun- 
day coat ? 

♦• Since Sunday coat and weekday coat are all the same 

to me, 
And tailors fierce besiege my house and seek their cash 

to see, 
The only chance to foil their schemes is then — ah, 

there's the rub — 
To wear my coat both night and day and to our great 

Game Club I " 

Second example : 

Noun— Potato. Question— Where am I at ? 

" An illustrious poet, philosopher, sage, named Plato, 
Was out on a ' bat,' 
He slipped on a vegetable — common potato— 
And sat, saying, * Where am I at ? '" 

NUMBER TWO 

Materials Required : Twice as many slips 
of paper, three inches by half an inch, as there are 
players; as many pettcils and sheets of foolscap 
paper as there are players ; two bowls or card- 
trays. 

When the players are seated in a circle each 
one receives two slips of paper and a pencil 



Three Rhyming Games 35 

and is asked to write on one slip a noun and 
on the other a verb. Two bowls or trays are 
then passed around the circle ; into one every 
player puts a noun and into the other a 
verb. Again the bowls are passed and every 
player takes a slip from each bowl. Sheets of 
foolscap paper are then dealt out, one apiece, 
to the players, and each is asked to write a 
rhyme containing the noun and the verb which 
he drew. Example : 

Noun— Trolley-car. Verb— Fly. 

" Upon a trolley-car last week 
A timid motor-man 
Was hit upon his toughened cheek 
With brick-bat, rock, and can. 

" He was a * scab ' from Jersey's shores 
Thus hit upon the fly, 
No more he'll do another's chores 
Until he minds his eye." 

NUMBER THREE 

Sheets of paper are provided, one for each 
player, and on every one is written a subject 
for a poem with the last word of each line. 



3<5 The Book of Games 

making a skeleton poem, with the rhymes 
ready-made, in this way : 

AN ODE TO TENNIS 

play 

slay 

court 

fought 

say 

day 

racket 

jacket 

For fifteen minutes everyone thinks and 
writes, and at the end of that time the papers 
are collected and the verses read. For ex- 
ample : 

AN ODE TO TENNIS 

O, watch the sylph-like Percy play, 
His victims on the ground to slay. 
He chases them around the court, 
The scene of many a battle fought. 
" He ain't no good," I hear you say; 
" He plays still worse from day to day.'* 
The reason is that many a racket 
Causes his wife to dust his jacket. 



Fan-hall 



37 



XVI 

Fan- BALL 

'Materials Required: Two palm-leaf fans ^ 
one sheet of red and one sheet of blue paper ^ quite 
stiff J a prize. 

Two balls, one of red paper and one of blue, 
are required, each being made of three flat 
intersecting pieces of paper : 




No. I. 



No. 2. 



No. 3. 



Having cut three circles three and a half 
inches in diameter, or four times the size of 
those in the diagram, cut slits according to the 
straight lines in the diagram, and number the 
circles 1, 2, and 3 as indicated. Now, taking 
No. 1 in your left hand, slide it through the 
long middle slit in No. 2, and it will be caught 
and held by the small slits at either side of 
No. 1. The cross-cuts in No. 3 allow that 



38 The Book of Games 

circle to fit over and bisect the other two, thus 
completing the skeleton ball. 

A goal is made at each end of the room 
where the game is to be played by placing two 
chairs or hassocks a yard apart ; a chair is also 
placed at an equal distance from each goal and 
in the centre of the room. When your guests 
have all arrived two captains should be chosen, 
who in turn choose sides until the party is 
equally divided. The red ball and a palm-leaf 
fan are given to one team and the blue ball 
and a fan to the other, and each takes pos- 
session of a goal. Two players at a time con- 
test, one from each side, and the game is 
played in this way : 

Each player stands in front of his goal, his 
paper ball before him; at the word of com- 
mand from the umpire, previously selected, 
each fans his ball in the direction of his oppo- 
nent's goal. The balls must go through the 
chair in the centre of the room, and the player 
who first sends his ball through this chair and 
then through his opponent's goal is the win- 
ner, and another pair of players begin the 
game afresh. When all have played, the team 



Intercollegiate Foot -hall 39 

which has won the most times receives as a 
prize a box of candy, bouquet of flowers, or 
something divisible among the members of the 
team. It must be remembered in playing this 
game that it is not allowable to touch the ball, 
it should be propelled only by the breeze from 
the fan. 



XVII 
Intercollegiate Foot-ball 

Materials Required : Two eggs ; one-fourth 
of a yard of the narrowest medium-blue ribbon ; 
one-fourth of a yard of narrowest orange ribbon ; 
half a yard of 7tarrowest black ribbon ; one fourth 
of a yard of narrowest white ribbon ; one-eighth 
of a yard, an inch wide, of medium-blue ribbon ; 
one-eighth of a yard, an inch wide, of orange rib- 
bon J six S7nall sticks as long as a lead-pencil a?id 
about one -fourth as thick; two wooden spools j 
one piece of white chalk. 

Foot-ball is always exciting — on the field, 
from the grand stand, and in the newspapers. 
It is even exciting on a table if played in a 
realistic way— as is possible if you will follow 
these directions : Take two raw eggs and blow 



40 The Book of Games 

them by making a small hole at each end and 
blowing through one hole until all the inward- 
ness of the tgg has been forced into a cup at 
the opposite end. When this has been done 
and the perfect shells remain, paint the eggs, 
or rather the shells, as nearly leather-color as 
possible with water-color paints. When they 
are dry draw with pen and ink the sections 
and lacing, so as to make them look as much 
as possible like real foot-balls. Next take an 
eighth of a yard each of medium-blue and 
orange ribbon, one inch wide, and one-fourth 
yard each of narrowest white and black rib- 
bon. Sew this narrow ribbon, the white in 
a Y on the blue ribbon, and the black in a P on 
the orange. Make two small sticks for these 
flags and you will have a prize ready for the 
winning team, whichever it may be. Your 
labors are not over, however, for the goal- 
posts are still to be made, but that is an easy 
matter. Saw two spools in halves, paint them 
black with ink or ivory-black, and you have 
the stands for your posts; then make four 
posts of the size to fit in the holes in the spool 
stands and about six inches long. Sew at the 



Intercollegiate Foot -hall 41 

top of one pair two Yale-blue pennants, made 
of strips of narrowest blue ribbon, and on the 
other pair two Princeton pennants of black and 
orange narrowest ribbon. Now on a dark felt 
table-cover, or even on the top of a dark wood 
table, mark out the lines of the "gridiron," 
or foot-ball field, placing the Yale goal-posts 
at one end and the Princeton at the other. 

When your guests arrive two of the number 
are chosen captains, one of the Yale and the 
other of the Princeton team. These captains 
then choose sides, and when all are ranged back 
of the goal-posts on their own sides the game 
begins. The ball is placed in the centre of the 
field and chance decides which side shall put it 
in play. This is done by the whole team, or 
by one or more players chosen by the captain, 
blowing the ball toward their opponent's goal. 
Each side can blow but once at a time, so the 
opposing side now takes its turn, and the 
foot-ball is blown back and forth until one 
side sends it through its opponent's goal, 
when that side scores six points and the foot- 
ball goes back to the centre. At the end of 
half an hour time is called and the flag of his 



42 The Book of Games 

college, on the pole of which may be strung an 
egg-shell foot-ball, is given to the winning 
captain as a trophy. 



XVIII 
Parodies 



Materials Required : As many pencils and 
sheets of paper as there are players ; a prize. 

In this game each person is required to write 
A parody on some well-known poem selected 
by the hostess. Pencils and paper are given 
to the players and a subject for all to write on 
is then announced ; also the title of the poem 
to be parodied. Half an hour should be al- 
lowed for the players to write their verses, and 
then all the papers are collected and read aloud 
by one of the company and a prize for the best 
may be given. Here is an example : 

POEM—" Hiawatha." Subject— The New Woman. 

In the land of the Dakotas, 
Where the lodges of the red men 
Were the only habitations, 
In the days of Hiawatha; 



Bouquet 43 

Where the squaws in wigwams toiling, 

Cooking for the dozing warriors, 

For the painted, red-sicin warriors, 

Lived and died and lie forgotten, 

Comes a strange, uncanny figure — 

On a bicycle 'tis riding, 

Clad in bloomers, tailor-made ones. 

To Dakota comes this object 

What the white men call New Woman. 

Ghost of lovely Minnehaha, 

Dost thou see this new production ? 

Gaze and wonder, Minnehaha I 



XIX 

Bouquet 



Materials Required : Sheets of colored tis- 
sue-paper of light yellow, orajtge, rose-color, red, 
light and dark violet, deep crimson, purple, light 
and dark blue, and white, two of each ; also a 
fourth as many sheets of light and dark green tis- 
sue-paper as there are players j as many slips of 
paper as there are players ; one spool of fine wire, 
such as tissue-paper manufacturers sell ; No. 8 
needles and No. yo white and black cotton; one 
bottle of mucilage ; at least one-third as many 
pairs of scissors as there are players. 



44 The Book of Games 

As the guests arrive each one receives a slip 
of paper on which is written the name of a 
flower. When all have come and are ready to 
begin, the hostess gives to each person a sheet 
of tissue-paper of the color needed to make 
the flower written on each slip — or, if more 
than one color is needed, half a sheet of each 
color will be enough — with one-fourth each of 
light and dark green. Twenty minutes, it is 
announced, is the time allowed for all to make 
one or more of the flowers assigned to them. 
Each person should have a needle and thread, 
and, if possible, the whole party should be 
seated around a table, or several small tables, 
for convenience in working. The scissors, wire, 
and mucilage may be used in common. When 
the time is up the hostess collects the flowers 
and a committee of four players, two ladies 
and two gentlemen, decides which is the most 
natural and perfect flower, and to the maker 
of this flower the whole bouquet is given by 
way of a prize. 

Suggestions for Flowers : Wild rose, violet, daisy, 
tulip, sweet-pea, buttercup, chrysanthemum, pansy, lily, 
nasturtium, bachelor's button, poppy, carnation, gera- 



Mirth 45 

niuiTi, dandelion, aster, primrose, marigold, orchid, 
daffodil, arbutus. 



XX 

Mirth 

Materials Required : A prize. 

When you have played this game you will 
perhaps wonder at its name and may rechris- 
ten it mirthless merriment. The leader should 
be a person with a contagious laugh. He is 
provided with an ordinary white handkerchief, 
which, when the players have formed a circle 
around him, he throws into the air. At this 
signal everyone must laugh as heartily as pos- 
sible until the handkerchief touches the floor, 
when if there is one or more of the players 
who is still laughing he must drop out of the 
magic circle. The leader will need to be very 
alert, as he must catch the player in the act of 
laughing or smiling before he can lawfully dis- 
miss him from the circle. When all but one 
player have been obliged to drop out, the prize 
is given to that person. 



46 The Booh of Games 

XXI 

Vice Versa 

Materials Required : Tejt crockery buttons 
for each gentleman ; as mariy pieces of cloth ^ six 
by six inches, as there are gentlemen ; three spools 
of No. so cotton ; paper of No. y needles ; as many 
thimbles as there are gentlemen; two pieces of 
wood, one atid one -half feet by six inches and 
about two inches thick ; two papers of small 
tacks ; two tack-hammers ; two prizes for lady 
and gentleman. 

To the average person masculine sewing on 
buttons is about as impossible as driving tacks 
is to the average person feminine, and as this 
game is really a competition in which the 
gentlemen strive to see which can sew on the 
most buttons in a given time and the ladies 
which can drive the most tacks, it will readily 
appear why the game is a lively and absorbing 
one. There should be a referee appointed, be- 
fore the game begins, to judge in the ladies' 
contest, and one for the gentlemen, to settle 
all disputes and also to keep time. 

The ladies begin two at a time, as in a 



Vice Versa 47 

tournament, standing one on each side of a 
table ; before each is a piece of board, a table- 
spoonful of tacks, and a hammer. At a given 
signal each begins hammering tacks into her 
board and continues for five minutes, when the 
referee counts each lady's tacks and credits her 
with the number she has hammered into the 
board. Another pair now take their turn (the 
tacks are drawn out after each pair has fin- 
ished), and so on till all the ladies have ham- 
mered tacks for five minutes, when the one 
who drove the greatest number in the given 
time receives a prize, and now, their trials over, 
they may become spectators of the gentlemen's 
eflforts. 

A piece of cotton cloth, six by six inches, 
a needle and a piece of thread, a thimble, 
and ten buttons, are given to each gentle- 
man and they are all asked to do the best 
they can toward threading their needles and 
sewing their allowance of buttons on the piece 
of cotton. Fifteen minutes may be allowed, 
and at the end of that time a prize is given to 
the one who has sewed the most buttons on 
his piece of cotton. 



48 The Book of Games 

XXII 

Progressive Puzzles 

Materials Required : As many blank paste- 
board cards, two and one-half inches square, as 
there are guests ; several pairs of scissors ; a 
prize. 

The simplicity of this game is its great at- 
traction, and it is as successful as it is simple. 
It is only necessary to provide as many small 
square cards as there are guests, several pairs 
of scissors, and a prize, if you like, and the 
game is ready. The party should be seated in 
a circle around the room ; each one then re- 
ceives a card, and every third or fourth play- 
er a pair of scissors, which he shares with his 
neighbors. It is announced that each player 
is to cut his card twice across so as to make 
four pieces. The cuts should be straight and 
must intersect each other, but they may go in 
any direction, and after the first cut the pieces 
should be held together till the second cut has 
been made. 

Each player now mixes up his four pieces 
and passes them to his right-hand neighbor. 



Eye-guessing 49 

At a signal everyone tries to put the four- 
part puzzle which he has received together, and 
the first player who succeeds calls out that he has 
finished, when all must stop and pass the puz- 
zles to the right again. The successful player 
is credited with a mark on the tally kept by 
the host or leader. The game then goes on 
as before until the time limit of half an hour is 
up, when the person who has most marks to 
his credit receives a prize. Much of the suc- 
cess of this game depends upon the ingenuity 
used in cutting up the cards, the object, of 
course, being to make as difficult a puzzle as 
possible for one's neighbor to put together. 



XXIII 

Eye-guessing 



Materials Required: As many sheets of 
paper and pencils as there are players ; a sheet 
or screen, in which slits may be cut j a large 
handkerchief ; a candle in a candlestick. 

A sheet having been hung in a doorway be- 
tween two rooms, half of the guests go behind 
this curtain. The room v/here the rest of the 



50 The Book of Games 

party is must then be darkened. In the sheet 
or screen small holes should be cut, of the size 
and shape of eyes. There should be eight of 
these, each pair at the proper distance apart 
for a pair of eyes to look through, and at 
varying heights from the floor. This should 
be prepared beforehand if the hostess wishes 
to save time. 

The players behind the screen now choose 
four of their number to look through the 
holes, while the players in front are allowed, 
one at a time, to take a lighted candle and 
inspect each pair of eyes, guessing to whom 
they belong. Then there is another set of eyes 
to guess, until all behind the screen have had 
their eyes shov/n, when the sides change places 
and the guessers become the guessed. 

For convenience in recording the guesses 
made, each of the players should have a sheet 
of paper and pencil, the paper arranged in this 

way: 

FIRST GROUP 

No. 1 

No. 2 , , 

No. 3 . 

No. 4 ..........._._. 



The Objective Library 51 

SECOND GROUP 

No. 1 

No. 2 

No. 3 

No. 4 

THIRD GROUP 

No. 1 

No. 2 

No. 3 

No. 4 

As the players guess each pair of eyes, they 
can write the names on a line with these num- 
bers according to the order in which the eyes 
were examined; and at the end, the papers 
may be corrected from a true list kept behind 
the curtain, and a prize awarded to the person 
who recognized most eyes. 



XXIV 
The Objective Library 

Materials Required: As many pencils and 
sheets of paper as there are players ; a prize. 

This game is simply taking titles of books 
and representing them by arrangements of 



52 The Booh of Games 

various objects. The groups may be arranged 
on a table and each numbered with a small 
card, the numbers being repeated on the left- 
hand side of sheets of paper. Each player is 
provided with one of these papers and a pen- 
cil. The game begins when all of the players 
are admitted to the room where the *' library " 
is spread upon the table, and should last about 
twenty minutes. In this time the players try 
to solve as many of the problems as possible, 
for the one who guesses the most titles in the 
given time receives a prize. 

The following are a few suggestions for titles, 
with the objects needed to represent them : 

" Essay on Man." — A picture of a man (cut from any 
illustration), on which is laid a large S and an A. 

"Measure for Measure." — A pint-measure, around 
which is twined a tape-measure. 

"The Spy."— A telescope. 

"The Rose and the Ring." — A rose drawn through 
a ring. 

"The Coming Race." — A newspaper-clipping about 
some future yacht or horse race. 

" Nicholas Nickleby." — A five-cent piece, to the right 
of which is laid the word " as " ; then another five-cent 
piece, followed by the word " by." 

"Ivanhoe" (I've an 0).-~A child, cut from an illus- 



The Objective Library 53 

tration, holding up a large O, which may be pasted on 
the child's hand. 

"Never Too Late to Mend." — A clock, stopped at 
twelve o'clock, with a torn glove, needle, thread, and 
thimble lying in front of it. 

Lamb's " Tales." — A number of tails, made of cotton- 
wool. 

" Bittersweet." — A box of quinine pills with a stick 
of candy lying on it. 

" Rudder Grange."— A picture of a rudder, followed 
by one of a long, low house. 

Several variations of this game may be 
played. For instance, instead of books, famous 
men may be represented : 

Plato.— By a plate, on which is laid the letter O. 

Socrates. — A gentleman's sock, re in the musical 
scale, and several sample packages of teas. 

Gladstone. — A picture of a laughing girl with a 
small stone beside it. 

Carnot. — A toy car with a slip of paper, on which 
is the word " No," laid on top. 

Mark Twain,— By two straight lines on a piece of 
paper. 

Another way of playing this game is to 
represent cities : 

1. A bag on which is pinned a piece of paper bearing 
these words : *' What a disrespectful boy calls his father." 
Answer : 



54 Tl)e Book of Games 

2. A sweet-pea pinned to a slip of paper with " Near 
relatives " on it. Answer : Pekin. 

3. On an empty can is laid a slip of paper with 
"2,000 lbs." written upon it. Answer : Canton. 

4. A burr pinned to a slip with " A city in Massachu- 
setts" on it. Answer: Berlin. 

5. "A vegetable growth on Hawthorne's Concord 
home that he found profitable;" this sentence to be fol- 
lowed by the picture of a cow. Answer : Moscow. 

6. A glass in which is a paper with these words on 
it :'* To depart." ^wm-^r; Glasgow. 

7. " Where Henry VIII. was going when he divorced 
Katherine of Arragon." Answer : Havana. 

8. These sentences on a paper : " Not wanted in 
Russia," "The French for street," and "The home of 
witches." Answer: Jerusalem. 

9. "Part of Trilby's foot " and "An exclamation;" 
these two sentences on a slip of paper, with a key laid 
between them. Answer : Tokio. 



XXV 

Initials 

Materials Required: A prize. 

A list of the names of some celebrated per- 
sons should be prepared beforehand in this 
way. The name is written at the left of the 



Initials 55 

paper, and on the same line, to the right, a 
characterization of two or more words is writ- 
ten suggestive of the name it follows and 
beginning with its initials in regular order. 
For example : 

Abraham Lincoln Absolutely Loyal 

Robert Louis Stevenson Rare Loving Spirit 

William Shakespeare Worth Studying 

William Makepeace Thackeray . . Wit ; Much Tenderness 

Edgar Allan Poe Extravagant and Peculiar 

David Livingston Delayed Long 

Richard Steele Rare Scapegrace 

Louis Agassiz Loved Animals 

H. B. Stowe Her Books Sell 

Mark Twain Makes Travesties 

H. M. Stanley He Made Search 

Louisa M. Alcott Left Many Admirers 

Christopher Columbus Conquering Cruiser 

Ralph Waldo Emerson Really Worth Emulating 

William Ewart Gladstone Who's England's Glory ? 

Mary Stuart Many Schemes 

Charles Reade Clever Romancer 

Oliver Wendell Holmes Oh, What Humor 

Thomas Carlyle Terribly Caustic 

Charles Dickens Cherished Deservedly 

The lines are then cut across so as to leave 
one name and its accompanying sentence on 



56 The Book of Games 

each slip. When the guests have arrived and 
are seated around the room, the host or leader 
reads the short descriptive phrases aloud, one 
at a time, and the person who first guesses the 
name of the character referred to receives the 
slip. At the end of the game a prize is given 
to the player who has won the most slips. 



XXVI 

Auction 



Materials Required : Twenty or more arti- 
cles of all sizes and shapes, mostly cheap toys, all 
wrapped and tied up attractively j as many cata- 
logues of the articles (in which they are called by 
fictitious 7ia7ncs) as there are players ; thirty beans 
in an envelope for each player ; as 7nany pencils 
as there are players. 

One of the merriest of games is here given, 
and although it may at first appear dil^cult to 
prepare, it really will fully repay one for the 
amount of trouble taken. Your local toy and 
confectionery shop will furnish plenty of ma- 
terial in the way of penny toys and candies, 
and the more absurd and childish these are the 
more fun their appearance will make as they 



Auction 57 

come to light in the progress of the auction. 
For this game is an auction, with a real or ama- 
teur auctioneer, twenty or more articles well 
wrapped in white paper, and your guests for 
bidders. Each person receives a catalogue or 
list of the articles, in disguise (that is in a kind 
of conundrum, as shown in the example given 
below), and an envelope containing thirty beans. 
The bidding begins as soon as the guests have 
all arrived, are seated, and have received their 
money and catalogues and a pencil apiece, and 
continues until all the articles have been auc- 
tioned off. Here, for example, is a catalogue, 
with the real things indicated in each case in 
parentheses : 

SPECIAL AUCTION SALE 
BY ORDER OF SHERIFF 

1. A Masterpiece — Whistler (a whistle). 

2. Study of a Head (a cabbage). 

3. Clothes-press (a toy iron). 

4. Irish Bric-a-brac (potato). 

5. Japanese Shield, Paragon Frame (small Japanese 

parasol). 

6. Patent Skirt-lifter (chocolate mouse). 

7. A Pennyworth of Solace (clay pipe). 

8. Woman's Multum in Parvo (hairpins). 



58 The Book of Games 

9. A Marble Bust (cracked marble). 

10. Reminder of an Impecunious Friend (sponge). 

11. Emblem of Justice (scales). 

12. Lubin's Tear Extract (onion). 

13. Fin de Si^cle Natatorium (toy bath-tub). 

14. Profanity Educators (hammer and tacks). 

15. Several Pairs of Nippers (clothes-pins). 

16. Ode to a Sitting Hen (china egg). 

1 7. A Pair of Blacklegs (doll's rubber boots). 

18. A Perfect Foot, \ la Trilby (foot-rule). 

19. Maid of Orleans (stick of molasses candy). 

20. Modern Instrument of Torture (toy banjo). 



XXVII 

Commerce 



Materials Required: Two packs of playing- 
tt»rds ; ffty beasts for each player j two prizes. 

To play this game successfully it is quite 
necessary to have among your guests a clever 
amateur auctioneer or some gentleman who 
does not object to talking a good deal, and is 
quick and amusing. If you can find such a 
person the success of the game is assured. 

The players should be seated around a 
table, each with his capital of fifty beans be- 



Commerce 59 

fore him. Two packs of playing-cards are 
then brought in and the auctioneer holds a sale 
of one pack, selling one card at a time to the 
highest bidder, who pays for it in beans. When 
the pack has all been sold, the players arrange 
their cards and beans on the table before them 
and prepare for business. Announcement is 
made by the auctioneer that he will begin by 
holding the second pack of cards in his hand 
and will turn up one at a time, as he does so 
calling the name of the card, and the player 
who has the duplicate of it among his cards 
must surrender it to the auctioneer. After the 
calling of each card there is an interval of three 
minutes for buying and selling among the 
players. As the object is either to secure 
more beans than anyone else, and so win a 
prize at the end of the game, or to possess the 
card matching the one at the bottom of the 
auctioneer's pack, for which another prize is 
given, the three-minute intervals are very ex- 
citing, especially when the pack in the auc- 
tioneer's hand grows very thin ; then anxious 
speculators often give their whole store of 
beans to buy one card, which perhaps matches 



6o The Booh of Games 

the next one turned up by the auctioneer, and 
so they lose everything in a moment in a 
realistic Wall Street way. 



XXVIIl 

Stray Syllables 

Materials Required : As many pencils and 
sheets of paper as there are players ; a prize. 

It is surprising how often the same syllable 
is used in different words. If you would like 
to prove this and at the same time entertain a 
party of people, play the following game. Ask 
each player to write several words on a long 
strip of paper, leaving spaces of about half an 
inch between the syllables of the different 
words. When this is done, cut out the sylla- 
bles, shuffle all together, and let each person 
draw three syllables. The party should be 
seated around a table, and each player tries 
with the three syllables, or with two of the 
three belonging to him, to construct a word. 
Each player tries in turn, and if it is impossible 
to make a word from his syllables he must re- 



Babv Show 6i 

turn two to the pack and wait until his turn 
comes again, when he may draw two more 
syllables and try again. 

If a prize is provided for the person con- 
structing the most words, an allowance of time, 
say twenty minutes, should be made, and the 
player who in that time has the most words to 
his credit receives a prize. 



XXIX 
Baby Show 



Materials Required : As many peticih ajid 
sheets of paper or small blank-books, for cata- 
logues, as there are players ; two prizes. 

Almost everyone has a tin-type or photo- 
graph to which to point in pride or humility, 
saying, "That was my picture as a baby." 
If you are planning an evening of games, ask 
all of your guests to bring the earliest pictures 
of themselves and you will have the material 
for a thoroughly interesting as well as amusing 
game. 

Each guest brings his or her picture wrapped 



62 The Book of Games 

in paper, and with the name on the outside, 
and hands it to the hostess. While other games 
are being played these pictures may be artisti- 
cally arranged on tables in an adjoining room ; 
or, if a more elaborate exhibition is desired, 
the owners may be asked beforehand to bring 
their pictures framed. In this case the hostess 
provides dark hangings, against which the pict- 
ures can be effectively grouped. All are num- 
bered, as at a gallery, and catalogues, more or 
less elaborate, may be provided, with pencils, 
for all the guests. Only the numbers of the 
pictures may appear, and these are written 
at the left side of the page — no names to tell 
who the originals of the pictures are or were. 

The guests are asked to guess the names and 
write their guesses against the numbers. Each 
also writes his or her vote as to which is the 
prettiest picture of a baby, and when all have 
guessed and voted and signed their names to 
their catalogues, the catalogues are collected 
and corrected and prizes are awarded to the 
one who has guessed the names of the most 
babies and to the original of the prettiest baby 
or child picture, as decided by the most votes 



Palette 6^ 

cast for any one. The prizes, to be really ap- 
propriate, should be toys, rubber rattles, balls, 
or packages of infant's food. 



XXX 

Palette 



Materials Required : As many small paste- 
board palettes and pencils as there are players ; 
as many large sheets of paper, about twenty -two by 
eighteen inches, as there are players j four thumb- 
tacks j an easel ; as many slips of paper as there 
are players ; colored chalks or crayons, two each 
of blue, red y and black s two prizes. 

An easel holding a drawing-board (to which 
the large sheets of paper have previously been 
fastened with thumb-tacks) is set up in a 
prominent place, and the players draw their 
chairs into a semicircle around it. To each 
player is given a small pasteboard palette which 
has been decorated with paint in the conven- 
tional way, or as an artist's palette is sup- 
posed to look when ''set up " with neat 
patches of paint in five or six colors follow- 
ing the outline of the palette. These are, of 



64 The Booh of Games 

course, dry, as the palettes are only for use 
as lists. On the reverse side are numbers, as 
many as players, one below the other, and 
following the outline of the palette, while in 
the centre of the painted side of each is a 
number — the one assigned to the player to 
whom the palette is given. 

The host now begins the game by calling 
No. 1, who comes to the easel and then re- 
ceives a slip of paper upon which he finds 
written the title of a song, old or new ; this he 
is requested to illustrate upon the board before 
him, using crayons or chalk of blue, red, and 
black. All the others try to guess what song 
their companion has tried to picture, and write 
their guesses opposite his number on their 
palettes. The drawing is now taken down and 
another person is called upon until all in turn 
have drawn pictures, when the palettes are col- 
lected by the host, and the owner of the one 
upon which there are the most correct guesses 
receives a prize. A prize also may be given to 
the artist whose title has been guessed by the 
greatest number of persons^ 



China Painting 65 

XXXI 

China Painting 

Materials Required : Half as many slips of 
paper as there are players ; half as many small, 
undecorated china cups and saucers as there are 
players ; as many common paint-brushes as there 
are players ; one- half pint of turpentine ; one tube 
each of blacky yellow^ blue, and red oil-paints ; as 
many small cotton cloths as there are players ; 
prizes for lady and gentleman. 

To entertain successfully a party of people 
for half an evening nothing could be better 
than this game. Each gentleman on arriving 
draws from a bowl a slip of paper, and finds 
written thereon the name of the lady who is to 
be his partner for the game. Every pair re- 
ceives a cup and saucer, a common white plate, 
in lieu of a palette, with a little oil-paint of 
four colors (black, yellow, red, and blue) upon 
it, two paint-brushes, and two soft cloths. It 
is then requested that every pair of players 
shall decorate their cup and saucer (the lady 
the cup and the gentleman the saucer) with a 
design of their own. The time allowed may be 



66 The Booh of Games 

half an hour or longer, as the hostess decides. 
The turpentine will only be needed to wash 
out mistakes, or, if used at all for mixing, 
very little is needed to thin the paint. 

If this game is played in a room where the 
furniture is very beautiful and costly, it would 
be well to have the players seated around a 
large table with an unspoilable covering, but 
even without this precaution, if ordinary care 
is taken, there need be no accidents to furni- 
ture or clothing. When all the china is deco- 
rated it is arranged artistically on a table, and 
a committee on awards decides on the cup and 
saucer most worthy of the prizes. 



XXXll 

Shadow Pictiirhs 

Materials Rkquirkd : Oni'/a?xeshfctfora 
curtain ; one lamp i^ivin^^ a stroni^ Hi^lif, or clt'c- 
irk liii/it J properties aeeordini^ to the pietiires 
given. 

These pictures are so amusing (hat although 
they require a little more preparation than 



Shadow Pictures 6y 

most games, they are worth the additional 
trouble. The first thing to provide is a sheet, 
large enough to fill the space between folding- 
doors or any double doorway between two 
rooms. Secure the sheet to the frame of the 
doorway with small tacks, stretching it so that 
there will be no folds or creases. Just before 
the performance begins the sheet should be 
wet evenly with a sponge and clear water, this 
will make the shadows sharper and more dis- 
tinct. The room where the audience is seated 
should be darkened, and the only light in either 
room should be a lamp with a strong, steady 
flame; or in houses lighted by electricity it 
would be easy to have an incandescent light 
arranged back of the sheet-screen. 

The light being placed about six feet behind 
the centre of the sheet, the performers should 
play their parts between it and the sheet — as 
near to the latter as practicable without touch- 
ing it. The side of the head must always be 
presented toward the curtain, as the profile 
only is elTective in shadow. The shoulder 
farthest from the curtain should be most care- 
fully managed, as it can easily make an ap- 



68 The Book of Games 

pearance like a lump on the breast or shoul- 
ders of the performer. The facial expres- 
sions in shadow are very limited — there is 
hardly a movable portion of the face ex- 
cept the lower jaw — but false noses may be 
made of pasteboard, splitting open the back 
edge sufficiently to allow the real nose to 
be inserted. 

The opportunities for emotional expression 
being so limited, shadow pictures must depend 
for success on a rapid succession of thrilling 
and absurd situations, all so exaggerated as to 
be unmistakable in their meaning. Two per- 
sons in apparent conversation should be care- 
ful to speak one at a time, each waiting for 
the other to finish his pantomime before re- 
plying to it. Every action should be done de- 
liberately and distinctly, without hurry. All 
properties should be under the exclusive con- 
trol of the stage-manager and should be laid 
on the floor or on a table in the order in which 
they will be needed. These properties, if small, 
may be cut from pasteboard, while the cos- 
tumes can be fashioned of any old material 
and trimmed with paper. For example : 



Shadow Pictures 69 

A sugpstion for shadow pictures is to act poems in 
pantomime as the words are read aloud, clearly, behind 
the scenes, Whittier's " Maud Muller " is very funny 
when burlesqued in this way, the verses without action 
being omitted. Maud is first seen in tattered gown, 
large hat, and hay-rake (the hay is newspaper cut in 
strips, and gloves stuffed and drawn over the actress's 
shoes give an absurd suggestion of bare feet). She sings 
and rakes in pantomime, and the " mock bird " (a lively 
looking fowl cut from pasteboard and perched on a 
branch which comes from the side of the door) " echoes 
from his tree." The Judge in cape, knickerbockers, and 
slouch hat now prances in on a hobby-horse, and Maud 
gropes in the hay, producing a bottle and tin cup, from 
which she gives him a draught, and he rides away. Next 
is seen the Judge's wife, " of richest dower," who passes 
before the curtain with a haughty expression and many 
furbelows. This is followed by the lines : 

" She wedded a man unlearned and poor, 
And many children played round her door." 

A string secured at one side of the doorway (and on 
which five or six dolls have been strung) is suddenly 
pulled from the opposite side, and the dolls dance 
merrily. 

Another very funny set of pictures may be taken 
from "Gentle Alice Brown," one of W. S. Gilbert's 
« Bab Ballads." 



70 The Book of Games 

XXXIII 

Silhouettes in Disguise 

Materials Required : One large sheet ; a 
candle or lamp ; old hats, bonnets, 77iasks, false 
noses, whiskers, and any other make-iip.s or cos- 
tumes. 

This game may be played in two ways. 
First, a sheet should be fastened to the wall 
at one end of the room so that it is quite 
smooth and unwrinkled ; near this one of 
the players seats himself on a low stool with 
his face toward the sheet. A table, on which 
is a lighted candle, should be placed about five 
feet behind him, and the rest of the lights in 
the room extinguished. The other players now 
disguise themselves with the various costumes 
and make-ups provided and pass between the 
seated player and the candle, distorting their 
features and figures as much as possible, hop- 
ping, limping, etc., so as to make their shadows 
quite unlike their usual selves. The solitary 
player on the stool tries to guess to whom the 
shadows belong, and if he is correct the player 
whose shadow he recognizes takes his place. 



IVhat Would You do if ? 71 

One guess only is allowed for each shadow, 
and the guesser must not turn his head either 
to the right or left to see who passes. 

The second way is this : The sheet is hung 
between two rooms separated by folding-doors 
or an arch. Half the players are chosen as 
actors and the other half as spectators. The 
room where the spectators are seated should be 
quite dark, the other lighted from the back by 
a strong lamp or electric light. The actors go 
in the lighted room and dress themselves in 
the different costumes and disguises ; they then 
pose, one at a time, before the sheet, where 
the strong light will throw their silhouettes 
sharply on it, and the audience makes guesses 
as to whom each shadow belongs. An amus- 
ing test in connection with this game is to have 
each actor in turn put out a hand from the 
side of the sheet and see if the audience can 
guess whose it is. 



XXXIV 

What would you do if- 



Materials Required : As many pencils and 
sheets of foolscap paper as there are players. 



72 The Book of Games 

Predicaments of the most trying and des- 
perate description are thought out beforehand. 
These are then written on sheets of foolscap 
paper, one at the top of each sheet, and each 
person is provided with a pencil and one of the 
papers. All are asked to write below the pre- 
dicaments given to them their ideas of the best 
ways out of them, and when this is done, and 
the papers are collected, another's paper is 
given to each person to be read aloud. For 
example ; 

" Suppose you were dressing for a meeting of the 
Game Club and lost your only collar-button down the 
register, what would you do and what would you say ?" 

Answer : " First, cuss ; second, run down cellar, dump 
the furnace fire, rake over the coals and ashes (cussing all 
the time). Failing to find the collar-button in the ashes, 
would then return and upbraid my wife for speaking to 
me just as I was adjusting the button, thereby causing 
me to lose it. Also wonder why she always let the baby 
have my things to play with ; remark upon the number- 
less collar-buttons already swallowed by that omnivorous 
infant. Then cuss some more, and say that I was glad 
of it, that I always hated that cussed Game Club and 
was glad of an excuse to stay home. Then ask my wife 
what she was crying about and what I had done. 
Finally, find a collar-button which had miraculously 



Songs for Several Singers 73 

escaped the all-devouring baby, put it on, dress, go to 
the Game Club, have a bully time, and win first prize." 



XXXV 

Songs for Several Singers 

Materials Required: A prize. 

In writing your invitations your guests should 
be asked each to compose a song of three or 
more stanzas, to be sung to a familiar tune ; 
for example, " Marching Through Georgia " or 
" Rally Round the Flag, Boys ! " and to bring 
their songs with them on the appointed even- 
ing. When the time comes and the guests 
have all arrived the songs are collected, and 
while one of the party plays the accompani- 
ment a group of tuneful members, gathered 
about the piano, sing each song in their best 
manner. 

If this is considered too easy, another method 
may be adopted, that of having each poet sing 
his own song ; but this has seemed to be rather 
too great a strain for the every-day person's 
amiability. When all the songs have been 
sung, a committee of three of the guests, pre- 



74 The Book of Games 

viously appointed, decides upon the song most 
worthy of a prize. This game is especially 
appropriate in a club where the object is to 
acquire a Club Song to be sung at subsequent 
meetings. 

XXXVI 

Who am I } 

Materials Required : As many slips of 
paper as there are guests ; a first prize ; a booby 
prize. 

A character party, which is most amusing 
and comparatively new, can be given without 
costuming and with little or no work in pre- 
paring for it. After the arrival of the guests 
the hostess pins to the back of each a written 
slip of paper telling the name of the character 
he or she is meant to be. The only knowledge 
the players have as to the persons they repre- 
sent is gained from the comments of their 
friends ; from these each must guess the name 
of his or her character. As the opinions ex- 
pressed differ very widely, the guessing of one's 
character is often a difficult matter. The names 
of well-known actors, authors, politicians, mu- 



Location 75 

sicians, characters in fiction, or local celebrities 
may be given. If desired, a prize may be 
awarded to the player who first guesses his 
character, as well as a booby prize for the last. 



XXXVII 

Location 

Materials Required : A prize. 

A game in which the geographical genius will 
shine comes from Boston, and is called Loca- 
tion. Two captains are chosen from among 
the players, and these in turn choose their sides 
until the party is equally divided. For con- 
venience it is well to seat the parties in two 
rows, facing each other. Chance decides which 
captain shall begin the game ; this he does by 
calling the name of a city or town, and then 
counting ten. Before he has finished counting 
his opposite opponent must locate the city or 
town. If he has answered correctly he in turn 
calls the name of a place, and the second player 
in the opposite row must locate it before ten is 
counted. But should any player fail to answer 



76 The Book of Games 

before ten is counted, or answer incorrectly, he 
or she must drop out, and when there is only 
one player left, on either side, that one gets 
the prize — and deserves it. 



XXXVIII 

Fashion Notes 



Materials Required : Half as via7iy blank 
cards as there are players ; as many pencils and 
sheets of paper (rough) as there are players j two 
boxes of conitnon water-color paints ; half as many 
pai?it-brushes as there are players j two glasses of 
water ; two sheets of blotting-paper ; or, in place 
of the paints, two boxes of colored crayons ; two 
prizes, if desired. 

For this game cards are written beforehand, 
with the name of a fashion publication on each ; 
for example, '* Harper's Bazar," " Godey's 
Magazine," *' The Ladies' Home Journal," 
'* Fashions," " Revue de la Mode," " Le Bon 
Ton," "L'Art de la Mode," ^' Demorest's 
Magazine," " The Young Ladies' Journal," 
"The Delineator," ''The Style," "The 
Queen," " Ladies' Pictorial," etc. 



Fashion Notes 77 

When the names are written or printed, 
each on a card, cut the cards in halves through 
the titles, so that they will mean nothing until 
joined. It will readily be seen that there must 
be half as many cards as there are guests, and 
therefore half as many titles of publications. 
Put all the first halves of the cards in a bowl, 
printed side down, for the gentlemen to draw 
from, and the other halves in another bowl for 
the ladies to draw from ; and then those whose 
cards, when put together, read a title are part- 
ners for the game. 

The hostess will need to have ready water- 
color paints (two boxes) and half as many 
brushes as players, also two glasses of water 
and two sheets of blotting-paper ; or boxes of 
colored crayons such as children use will do 
just as well. Pencils and paper (pieces of 
drawing or other rough paper are best) are 
given to the players, and it is then announced 
that each lady is to draw and color a fashion- 
plate, taking for a model the gown she is 
wearing. Twenty minutes are allowed for 
this, and then each gentleman writes a descrip- 
tion of his partner's gown according to the 



78 The Booh of Games 

fashion-plate she has drawn, the time limit for 
this being twenty minutes also. 

The result is sure to be very funny. When all 
have finished, the fashion drawings are collected, 
and, as the descriptions are read aloud, the pict- 
ures are shown. Appropriate prizes may be 
given to the author and artist of the best fash- 
ion note. 



XXXIX 

Composite Pictures 

Materials Required : As many pencils and 
pieces of paper ^ about three by nine inches, as there 
are players. 

To play this game the players, being seated 
in a circle, all receive pencils and pieces of 
paper. Each person having divided his pa- 
per into three equal parts by folding, then 
draws on the upper space a comic head, ex- 
tending the neck a little over the line into the 
second division, folds the paper over backward 
and passes it to his right-hand neighbor, who 
draws a body and just the beginning of legs in 
the lowest division. This arrangement insures 



A Penny for Your Thoughts 79 

the connection of the three parts of the fish, 
flesh, or fowl drawn. The player who has 
drawn the body then folds the paper back 
once more and passes it to his right, when the 
player who receives it draws a pair of legs in 
the lowest space. A knowledge of drawing is 
not expected of any player, as the crudest sug- 
gestion of a head, a body, or a pair of legs will 
fill all requirements. Men, animals, birds, and 
fishes may contribute head, body, and legs, 
and the absurd combinations thus obtained 
make this game a very funny one. 



XL 
A Penny for YoCjr Thoughts 

Materials Required : As many pennies as 
there are players ; as many pieces of narrow, 
colored ribbo?iy about half a yard lon^, as there 
are players ; as 7nany sheets of paper or cards 
and prograjnme-pencils as there arc players ; a 
prise. 

Having provided and bored holes in the re- 
quired number of pennies, tie through each a 
piece of ribbon. Then to every sheet of paper 



8o The Booh of Games 

or card attach a small programme-pencil, and 
write on the left-hand side the following list, 
omitting, of course, the answers, which should 
be kept on a separate list for the leader's 
reference : 

A weapon An arrow 

What our forefathers fought for Liberty 

Name of a flower Tulip (two lips) 

Name of an animal Hare (hair) 

Name of a fruit Date 

A rowing term Feather 

What we love America 

Name for an ocean Sea (C) 

Place of worship Temple 

A messenger One sent (one cent) 

.,..,.. ( Ayes and noes (eyes 

A method of votmg \ , ^ ^ 

( and nose) 

A beverage Tea (T) 

Part of a vegetable Ear 

A gallant Beau (bow) 

An act of protection Shield 

A punishment Stripes 

A term of marriage United state 

An ancient honor Wreath 

Part of a hill Brow 

An occupation Milling 

Writings from the absent Letters 

One of the first families Indian 



Alliterative Literature 8i 

When the guests arrive, everyone receives 
one of these unfinished fists, together with one 
of the beribboned pennies, and the hostess an- 
nounces that all the things written on the list 
can be found on every penny, and the object 
is to find them, or rather their equivalent 
terms, and write them on a line with the 
things already written. Half an hour is the 
time limit, or this may be lengthened to three- 
quarters if it is necessary; that is, if many 
have not finished when the half hour is up. 

Every paper is marked with the writer's name, 
and when all have finished and the papers are 
collected, a redistribution gives everyone some- 
one else's paper, and the true answers are read 
aloud, while all check off the correct guesses. 
The winner, having learned the value of a cent, 
will perhaps like a child's bank for a prize. 



XLI 

Alliterative Literature 

Materials Required : As many pencils and 
sheets of paper as there arc players ; a prize. 

The party being seated in a circle, each per- 



82 The Booh of Games 

son is provided with a ppncil and paper and is 
requested to write a story or poem, every word 
of which must begin with the same letter, say 
with " a," except that '' a," " an," and " the " 
may be used when necessary ; the time allowed 
being according to the average brilliancy of the 
players, from ten minutes to half an hour. At 
the end of the agreed time all papers are col- 
lected and read aloud by the host or some 
member of the party, and a prize may be given 
for the best and longest story or poem. For 
example : 

Amiable Aunt Anne adored antiques and andirons, 
and admired all antediluvian articles. An autumn after- 
noon Aunt Anne ambled airily along Avenue A. At an 
alley appeared an alluring advertisement, "Antiques." 
As Aunt Anne approached, an amputated African at- 
tracted attention, asking alms. Aunty always attends 
adversity and asked artlessly, "Art actually armless?" 
African answered, " Ay ! " After aiding African, Aunt 
Anne again advanced alleyward. An agreeable, albeit 
avaricious, Armenian assisting at artistically arranging 
antiques, advised Aunt Anne's acquiring Asiatic atomizer 
at an amazing amount, adding adroitly," An actual abate- 
ment ! " Alas ! Aunt Anne anted amazing amount and 
ambled away. Arriving at apartment, Aunty, admir- 
ing acquisition — an aged acquaintance (antiquarian au- 



Sight Unseen 83 

thority) announced — asserts absolutely, "Atomizer an 
adulteration and altogether abominable." Alas ! Aunt 
Anne. 



XLII 

Sight Unseen 



Materials Required : As many cards as 
there are ladies ; half as many pencils and sheets 
of paper as there are players j prizes for lady and 
gentleman. 

To each gentleman, as he arrives, is given 
a card bearing the name of a lady, his part- 
ner for this game. The host then distributes 
to each pair a sheet of paper and a pencil. 
He then announces the plan of the game, 
which is as follows: Each gentleman and 
lady having decided which of the two draws 
best, the other one goes to the host, who 
gives him or her an object, common or un- 
common, which he or she may on no ac- 
count show to the partner who draws. The 
chairs in which the partners sit are arranged 
as tete-a-tete chairs are made, that is, side by 
side, but facing in opposite directions. The 
persons who hold the objects then describe 



84 The Book of Games 

them to their partners, wlio draw, from these 
descriptions, pictures of the objects as accu- 
rately as they can. 

in a given time, say twenty minutes, all 
must have finished. The articles and the draw- 
ings which have been made of them are then 
arranged in combination upon a table, and a 
committee of two ladies and two gentlemen 
decides which drawing is most like the object 
it represents. When this is decided, a prize 
is awarded to the successful artist, also one to 
his or her partner. 



XLIII 
Household Fragrance 

Materials Required: Foio-tccn botllvs, quart 
sizCy each labelled ivith a munber from i to 14 j one 
tablespoonful each of coffee ^ tea^ kerose?ie, vinegar, 
turpentine, Pond's Extract, molasses, olive-oil, 
Jamaica ginger, lager-beer, Listerine, ammonia, 
paregoric, and vanilla ; as many sheets of paper 
and pencils as there are players j a first prize j a 
booby prize. 

Fourteen quart -size wine -bottles are ar- 
ranged around the four sides of a table, in a 



Household Fragrance 85 

hollow square ; in each is put a tablespoonful 
of some household remedy, or any liquid hav- 
ing more or less odor — a list of fourteen such 
liquids is given on the preceding page. When 
the players are ready, pencil and paper are 
given to them and the object of the game is 
explained, as follows : Every player is to smell 
the bottles in turn and then guess what liquid 
is in each, and write the guesses on the paper 
with which each person is provided. The bot- 
tles are labelled from 1 to 14, and the papers 
also may be numbered on the left-hand side 
so as to save trouble for the guessers. 

It will be found no easy matter to recognize 
the familiar smells when so many are pre- 
sented in quick succession, and the player who 
finds, when the twenty minutes are up, that 
he or she has the most correct guesses may be 
congratulated, and really deserves a prize. The 
winner is of course found by a comparison of 
the guesses with a correct list in the hands of 
the hostess. A booby prize may console the 
unfortunate whose sense of smell is not up to 
this test and whose guesses are widest of the 
mark. 



S6 The Book of Games 

XLIV 
Flags of All Nations 

Materials Required : One sheet of bristol- 
board ; one box of water -color pai7its ; as many 
sheets of paper and pencils as there are players ; 
a first prize ; a booby prize. 

It is a wise person who knows all the Ameri- 
can flags in use in the Army and Navy and 
in the Revenue Service, and when it comes 
to the flags of all nations the cleverest peo- 
ple are puzzled. A new game is based on this 
idea. In almost any atlas or gazetteer will 
be found a page of flags, colored truthfully 
and with the country each belongs to writ- 
ten underneath. Anyone who can draw at 
all, mechanically or otherwise, will find it an 
easy matter to copy these flags on a large sheet 
of bristol- board, substituting for the name of 
the country a number under each. The color- 
ing with water-color paints is easily done, as 
the bristol-board takes water-color very well. 
Sheets of paper numbered down the side, with 
as many numbers as there are flags, are given 
one to each player with a pencil. The card of 



Blockade 87 

flags is then hung where all can see it, and half 
an hour is allowed for all to guess the coun- 
tries the flags belong to. 

At the end of the allotted time each signs 
his or her name to the list, and the papers are 
collected, a redistribution giving each player 
another's paper. The hostess then reads from 
a list previously prepared, No. 1 is the Ameri- 
can flag, No. 2 is the Union Jack, No. 3 is the 
Irish flag, etc., while all check off the correct 
guesses and mark the papers accordingly. A 
very pretty prize for the winner is a dainty 
silk American flag, and for the booby prize the 
painted card of flags may be given. 



XLV 
Blockade 



Materials Required : Fifty or sixty misceU 

laneoiis articles — children's toys, blocks, engines, 
rubber balls, dumb-bells, strangely shaped potatoes, 
clothes-pins, Hahna or chess-tnen, bea7i-bags, and 
Jlat-irons j two large, fiat baskets ; a prize. 

Half the number of very much assorted arti- 
cles, say thirty, are heaped in a large basket at 



S8 The Book of Games 

one side of the room, with another pile of 
thirty articles across the room in another large 
basket. Two captains choose sides until the 
players are equally divided, when the parties 
line up, one on each side of the room, with a 
basket at one end of the line and a chair at 
the other. The captain of each side is usually 
stationed next to the basket. 

At a signal the captain takes an article 
from the basket, passes it to the player next 
him, and as fast as possible, one after another, 
the articles are taken from the basket and 
passed down the line. The rule is that if any- 
thing is dropped it shall be passed back to the 
leader and started again. The player next the 
chair must pile the articles on it as fast as they 
come to him, without dropping one, and the 
side finishing first is the winner. 

At a party where this was played the captain 
of the winning side received a prize, and then 
a tray heaped with rosebuds was brought in 
and the flowers were divided among the play- 
ers of the winning side. 



Domestic Architecture 89 

XL VI 

Domestic Architecture 

Materials Required : As many hats and 
bonnets^ old ones preferred, as there are gejitle^nen 
guests ; trimmings for the same nutnber of hats 
a7id bonnets — ribbons ^ feather s^ and flowers, the 
older a7id gayer the better ; or sheets of gayly col- 
ored tissue-paper, two for each hat or bonnet j two 
papers of pitis ; a first prize ; a booby prize. 

This game is very amusing and may be 
played by any number of persons. The hats 
(feminine) and bonnets, as many as there are 
gentlemen guests, with trimmings for the same, 
must have been provided beforehand by the 
hostess, or she may ask each lady to bring 
one. 

On one table the pile of untrimmed hats is 
arranged and on another the trimmings. Each 
gentleman now selects a hat or bonnet from 
the collection, also trimmings and a row of 
pins. Fifteen minutes is the time allowed for 
trimming the hats, and then each gentleman 
puts on his own *' creation." All form in line 
and pass before a committee of the ladies, who 



90 The Book of Games 

decide which hat deserves the first prize. For 
the least successful a booby prize may be 
dven. 



XLVII 
Blind Artists 



Materials Required : A black-board; white 
chalk ; an eraser ; a large handkerchief; a first 
prize ; a booby prize. 

At the end of the room where the players 
are gathered a black-board is hung; or if you 
have one that will stand like an easel, so much 
the better. Ask each player in turn to walk 
up to the black-board, then blindfold him, give 
him a piece of chalk, and ask him to draw a 
picture of a pig. The other players must all 
look carefully and critically at each pig as it is 
drawn, for after all have finished a vote is 
taken as to who drew the best pig, and that 
person receives a prize. 

This is a good opportunity to give a funny 
prize in the shape of a pig ; and a pig made of 
a lemon might be given to the one who made 
the worst drawing. 



Buying Forfeits 91 

XLVIII 

Buying Forfeits 

Materials Required : As many slips of 
paper and envelopes as there are players. 

As many forfeits as there are to be players 
in this game should be written beforehand on 
slips of paper. Each of these slips is enclosed 
in a sealed envelope, numbered on the outside. 
When the players are all seated in a semicircle 
the leader tells them that he is about to hold 
an auction of a collection of envelopes, each of 
which holds something costly. These enve- 
lopes with their contents will be sold to the 
highest bidders, and paid for in imaginary 
money (every player is supposed to have a 
hundred dollars capital), but no one can buy 
more than one. Moreover, the seals must not 
be broken until all the envelopes have been sold. 

The auction then begins and does not end 
until the last envelope has ** gone," when the 
disappointment and dismay on the faces of the 
buyers as they discover what their purchases 
amount to, is a funny sight to see. The re- 



92 The Booh of Games 

deeming of the forfeits follows in the order of 
the numbers on the envelopes. Suggestions 
for these penalties will be found in ** Some 
Forfeits" at the end of the book. 



XLIX 
A Boy's Pockets 

Materials Required : One pair of hofs 
knicko-bockers ; Jifteefi to tzventy articles usually 
found ift a boy's pockets ; as 7nany pencils and 
sheets of paper as there are players j a prize. 

You first catch a boy — a plain, ordinary 
American boy — about the knickerbocker age, 
and having made sure that his pockets contain 
their usual and normal supply of miscellaneous 
articles, you borrow the knickerbockers and 
bestow them in a convenient place. The com- 
pany, having been supplied with pencils and 
sheets of paper, are requested each to write 
down the names of twenty articles most likely, 
in their judgment, to be found in a boy's 
pockets. 

This having been done the knickerbockers 
are pioducedj the pockets emptied, and the 



Personal Preference Pictures 93 

articles found checked off on the lists. The 
lists may also be read separately to show the 
varying ideas of the guessers. The person 
guessing the most articles wins the prize. 



L 

Personal Preference Pictures 

Materials Required : A black-board ; while 
chalk ; a cloth or eraser ; as ?nany slips of paper 
as there arje guests j a prize. 

This game is a good one with which to begin 
an evening. As the guests arrive each receives 
a long slip of paper, folded so that the writing 
is inside, and having on it the name of the 
guest, with that of some object connected with 
a well-known hobby, or dislike, or joke relat- 
ing to the person who receives it. This must 
not be seen by anyone else. When all have 
arrived and are seated in a semicircle, a black- 
board is brought in and set up at one end of 
the room (or this may be done beforehand). 
The host then stations himself at the black- 
board and beginn'ng at one end of the semi- 
circle asks the players each in turn to come to 



94 The Book of Games 

the blackboard and draw a picture illustrating 
the subject on his or her slip of paper. The 
other players are to guess what they suppose 
the drawing is meant to represent, and the first 
person who calls the subject correctly is cred- 
ited with one guess on a tally kept by the host. 
When all have made their drawings the 
player who has the most guesses to his or her 
credit receives a prize. If, as sometimes hap- 
pens, there are two or more persons who have 
guessed the greatest number, one of the other 
players is asked to draw a picture, choosing 
his own subject, and the first one of the win- 
ners who guesses this correctly takes the prize. 



LI 

Peanut Hunt 



Materials Required : One quart of pea- 
nuts ; as many Japanese napkins as there are 
players ; a prize. 

While your guests are playing a game in 
one room, in another someone can hide a 
quart or more of peanuts in sight, that is, on 
the tops of pictures, in folds of curtains, on 



Zoological Game 95 

clocks and bric-a-brac, high or low, wherever 
there is room for a peanut to rest. When the 
time comes for this game the players each re- 
ceive a Japanese napkin by way of a game- 
bag for the hunt. The doors are then thrown 
open and the game is not ended till every 
peanut has been found, when to the player who 
has the most is given a prize, as well as the 
peanuts he has found. 



LII 
Zoological Game 

Materials Required : One sheet of white 
cardboard ; half a dozen sheets of silhouette- 
paper, black unglazed on one side and white on 
the other (it may be bought at any wholesale paper 
store, and this quantity will be enough if there are 
not over twenty-five or thirty players) j six pairs 
of scissors ; 07te bottle of mucilage j a lead-pencil 
and a sheet of white paper for each player, 

A sheet of cardboard is hung like a black- 
board at one end of the room. A piece of silhou- 
ette-paper, five by five inches, and a pencil are 
then given to each player. On the white side of 
each piece of paper are written the name of some 



96 The Book of Games 

animal and the number of the player. The play- 
ers then draw pictures of the animals assigned 
them on the white sides of their paper, and cut 
them out. Time allowed, twenty minutes. 

When all are done the hostess collects the 
animals and pastes them on the white card- 
board, black side out, and numbers each ac- 
cording to the number of the player who made 
it. As many sheets of paper, with numbers 
down one side, as there are players are then 
dealt out, and each player must guess and 
write down opposite its number what animal 
he thinks each is meant to represent. The 
sheet of animals may be given as a prize to 
the player who guesses the largest number. 



LIII 

Conundrums 



Materials Required ; Ten or tivclvc slips of 
papcr^ ihrcc by nine inches^ upon which conundrums 
are written ; as many pencils as there are players. 

The leader provides ten or a dozen slips of 
paper, at the bottom of which he has written 
conundrums, one on each slip. The slips are 



Compositions 97 

passed to each person, in turn, who writes an 
answer to the conundrum at the head of the 
sheet, then turns the portion of the paper con- 
taining the answer back, so as to conceal the 
writing, and passes the slip to the next person. 
When all present have written answers to 
all the conundrums the slips are read and the 
correct answers announced. If preferred, each 
person may write a conundrum at the bottom 
of a slip instead of the leader doing so. 



LIV 

Compositions 



Materials Required : As many pencils and 
sheets of paper as there are players ; a prize. 

Each person is provided with a sheet of 
paper, at the top of which has been written a 
subject for a composition. This composition 
must be written after the school-boy fashion, 
and within a prescribed limit of time. The 
same subject may be given to all, or each may 
have a separate subject. When finished the 
papers may be collected and read, the most 
worthy {i.e., amusing) receiving a prize. 



98 The Book of Games 



LV 

Broken Quotations 

Materials Required : Ha// ai^aiu as many 
quotations as there arc players^ each written on a 
strip of paper and cut in two or more pieces j a 
paper of pins y a prize. 

The following has proved excellent for start- 
ing an evening of games. The hostess having 
prepared the quotations as already mentioned, 
pins the slips of paper on curtains, cushions, 
furniture, and picture-frames before the guests 
arrive. When everyone has come the purpose 
of the game is explained in this way. Each 
player is to find the beginning of a quotation 
among the slips of paper around the room ; 
and, having secured that, is required to find 
the next piece of it, and the next, until he has 
the whole. Then he starts with another in 
the same way. The game goes on until all the 
quotations have been taken, when the person 
who has the greatest number receives a prize. 



Photograph Whist 99 

LVI 

Photograph Whist 

Materials Required : A box of photo- 
graphs ; a prize. 

In almost every family there is a collection 
of photographs, from the yellow and faded 
ones, dating back to grandmother's day, to the 
latest one of the newest baby. This collection 
will prove a treasure to the hostess looking for 
a new game. If possible, the players should 
be divided into two companies, to be seated 
around large tables. At each table one player 
is chosen dealer and umpire, and half of the 
photographs are given to him to deal around 
once, faces down. 

At a signal from the dealer all turn up their 
photographs, and the one who has the plainest 
picture takes the trick. As may be imagined, 
there is a great deal of amusing discussion be- 
fore the winner is decided upon ; but the um- 
pire gives the final decision, and the game goes 
on. The player who has won most tricks at 



loo TJje Book of Games 

the end of the game plays off with the winner 
at the other table, each using the photographs 
he has won. 

An old print of some famous beauty makes 
a good prize for the successful player in this 
match. A delightfully clever, though plain, 
maiden lady is said to have invented this game, 
and when it was played at her house her pho- 
tograph invariably took the trick, much to her 
amusement ! 



LVII 

Celebrities 



Materials Required : Two large sheets of 
white cardboard, 50 to 'jo picttires of 7ioted people; 
as ?nany sheets of paper and pencils as there are 
players ; a prize. 

Almost everyone knows the sensation of 
being unable to call to mind the name of a 
noted person whose picture is perfectly famil- 
iar. This idea is the basis of a most success- 
ful game. The hostess, having collected from 
fifty to seventy pictures of celebrated men and 
women from old and new magazines and mag- 



Planting Peanuts loi 

azine advertisements, pastes them upon huge 
sheets of cardboard, substituting numbers for 
their names. These cards are hung in the 
room where the guests are to be entertained ; 
and when all have arrived and have received 
pencils and sheets of paper, having numbers 
down the left side corresponding with those 
under the portraits, the game begins. 

The object is to see which person can attach 
the right names to the greatest number of fa- 
miliar faces in the given time, twenty-tive min- 
utes. The correct list is then read aloud, each 
checks off his own successful guesses, and the 
player who has most to his credit receives a 
prize. 

LVIII 
Planting Peanuts 

Materials Required : Two quarts of pea- 
nuts ; two bowls s a prize. 

The hostess appoints two leaders who choose 
sides until the party is divided equally, when, 
two large rugs having been spread near to- 
gether, a bowl of peanuts is placed in the 



I02 The Book of Games 

centre of each. The object of the game is to 
see which party can first place all its peanuts 
one inch apart on the four edges of the rug, 
half on the rug and half on the floor, in a sort 
of fringe effect. For this purpose the leaders 
gather their respective teams in the centre of 
their rug, and at a given signal all begin the 
planting. The peanuts are divided among the 
victors, and a special prize may be given to 
the leader. 



LIX 

PATCHWORK Illustration 

Mate-rials Required : As many sheets of 
foolscap paper as there are players ; a number of 
pictures cut froju advertisements ; two bowls ; 
several pens and pairs of scissors _; a bottle of ink 
and one of mucilage ; a prize. 

The hostess collects beforehand a number of 
advertising pictures cut from magazines ; pict- 
ures of men, women, and children, marvellous 
candy, soap, bicycles, and baked beans. These 
are put into two bowls, and placed in the cen- 
tre of a large table with the other materials. 



Swaps 103 

Each player receives a sheet of foolscap paper 
with a quotation written on it, and all take 
seats around the table. It is announced that 
the object of the game /s to make a picture 
illustrating the quotation at the top of one's 
paper. The advertisement men, women, and 
children are to be used for the figures, and 
pasted upon the sheets of paper ; while the ac- 
cessories can be advertisements too, and the 
landscape drawn in with pen and ink. The 
time allowed is half an hour, and the results 
are sure to be funny and sometimes most in- 
genious. An exhibition of the illustrations 
may follow, and a prize should be given for 
the best. 



LX 

Swaps 

Materials Required : As many slips of 
paper as there are guests. 

New England is responsible for this game. 
The hostess, in inviting her guests, asks each 
to bring the one particular thing he or she 



104 The Book of Games 

wants to get rid of ; the impossible wedding or 
Christmas present, for example, that has been 
a trial to the spirit ever since it was received. 
Each brings one article of this kind, neatly 
wrapped and tied, and, a duplicate set of num- 
bers having been provided beforehand (half as 
many numbers as there are players and these 
duplicated), a number is pinned to the pack- 
age, which is held by its owner until further 
notice. 

When all the guests have arrived and have 
had their numbers attached, the hostess asks 
them all to be seated in a circle and then calls 
upon the two persons having No. 1 to ex- 
change packages. This is done, and then 
" No. 2 " is called, ** No. 3," and so on, till 
all have ** swapped." Then the signal is given 
to unwrap the packages, and amid groans and 
laughter each finds that he has lost his own par- 
ticular trial only to gain a worse one, perhaps. 

At a recent game the discarded articles 
ranged from a cloissone plaque to a Concord 
grape, and included marvels in hand-painted 
celluloid and cr^pe paper, a very lively cat, and 
a dead mosquito. 



Nicknames of Cities 105 

Nicknames of Cmns 

Materials Required : As f?iany poicils and 
sheets of paper as there are players ; a prize if 
desired. 

Everyone knows that certain cities have 
nicknames : As Brooklyn, the City of Church- 
es ; Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, 
etc. A long list will be found in any book of 
general information, and a game played like 
Living Catalogue (p. 11) is founded on this 
fact. The hostess, in sending her invitations 
asks the guests to wear something to represent 
the nicknames of cities. 

When the guests have all arrived each re- 
ceives pencil and paper, and is asked to write 
what cities he supposes the different persons 
represent. There should be a limited time in 
which to complete these lists, and the person 
who has the largest number of correct guesses 
may receive a prize. 



io6 The Book of Games 

LXII 

Biography 

Materials Required : As many pencils and 
sheets of paper as there are players ; a prize. 

Each having received pencil and paper, the 
players take seats in a circle. With his left 
hand neighbor for a subject, each one writes 
an account of the ancestry, birthplace, youth, 
and subsequent happenings in this person's 
life — the more absurd the better, of course. 
Fifteen minutes is allowed, and when the time 
has elapsed the papers are collected, and a prize 
may be given for the best production, if the 
winner is willing to acknowledge the author- 
ship. An example follows : 

A BIOGRAPHY 

This gentleman was born when he was quite young 
at a very early age. He entered this world barefoot 
and without teeth, and with little money in his pocket. 
He early made the acquaintance of his mother, but did 
not speak to his father for a year or more. He chose 
the name of Lamb because of family prejudices, and be- 
cause mutton was high. 



Talking Shop. 107 

Before he was six years old he had his fifth birthday, 
and could speak English and talk in five tunes with one 
eye shut and his hands tied behind his back. 

He put on his first boots as soon as his feet were 
ripe, and was known to be in love before he was out of 
his teens and false teeth. His first girl's name was 
Mary, of course, and here originated the famous poem 
about 

Mary had a little Lamb 

(Her last name Smith, you know) 
And everywhere that Mary stayed 
Her Lamb he would not go. 

There is much more to be said which had best be 
said in the dark of the moon, by a black policeman 
with red whiskers. 



LXIII 

Talking Shop 



Materials Required : As many pencils and 
sheets of foolscap paper as there are players ; 
prizes for lady and gentleman. 

Partners are chosen for this game as follows : 
Half of the sheets of foolscap paper provided 
have the name of a woman on each. These 
are distributed among the ladies. The other 



io8 The Book of Games 

half have characters to match for the gentle- 
men. For example, " Una and '' is writ- 
ten at the top of the lady's paper ; " the 

Lion " on the one for her partner. Other sug- 
gestions are ** Py ramus and — Thisbe," " Jack 
and — Jill," "The Lady — and the Tiger/' "Fe- 
lix and — Mary Anne," ** The Spider — and the 
Fly." 

When all have found their partners the 
hostess announces that the ladies will be al- 
lowed five minutes in which to talk to their 
partners about fashions, shopping, or house- 
hold affairs. At the end of that time the 
hostess rings a bell, and the gentlemen must in 
ten minutes, all unaided, write an account of 
what their partners have told them. The 
papers are then signed and collected, and at a 
signal the gentlemen are expected to talk about 
their business, stocks, real estate, law, or medi- 
cine, whatever it may be, for five minutes. 
Then their partners write what they can re- 
member of the conversation, in ten minutes, 
and these papers are signed and collected. A 
reading of all the compositions follows, and 
prizes are awarded to the two most amusing. 



Natural History 109 



LXIV 

Natural History 

Materials Required : A bowl of beans j a 
prize. 

A leader is chosen who starts the game by 
saying: "I am thinking of an animal, which 
I will describe ; and I will give a bean to the 
first player who guesses its name. Should any- 
one guess wrong, however, he or she cannot 
guess again, but I will name another point 
about the animal after each wrong guess. This 
animal walks on four feet, has a long tail, short 
ears, and varies in color and size." Some one 
says ** a cat," and is wrong. The leader then 
says, " It has a pointed nose." Some one 
guesses '' a collie dog," and is wrong. "It is 
very crafty and runs fast." This time several 
cry " A fox ! " and the one who spoke first 
gets a bean, and in turn describes an animal. 
When the game flags the player who has won 
the most beans receives a prize. 



PART II 

IMPROMPTU GAMES 



LXV 

A Spoonful oi" Fun 

Materials Required : One tablespoon or 
lar^e wooden spoon ; a lar^e hatidkcrchief. 

This game comes to us from the German, 
and is a capital one. The players form a cir- 
cle, while one of their number is in the mid- 
dle blindfolded and has a large spoon for a 
wand. The players then take hands and go 
round in a circle to music. As the music stops 
they must all stop too, and the player in the 
middle gropes with his spoon until he touches 
one of the other players, who must at once 
stand perfectly still. 

The blindfolded player now tries, by deftly 
touching here and there, to discover who it is, 
and if he guesses correctly that player takes his 
place. All of course try to disguise themselves, 
for it is easier than at first appears to discover 
the identity of a person by this spoon-tough- 
ing. Some stand on tiptoe or crouch to disguise 



114 The Book of Games 

their height; the gentlemen turn their coat 
lapels forward or arrange handkerchiefs so that 
their shirt-fronts will not betray them, and all 
try to puzzle the blindfolded spoon-holder. 



LXVI 

Trades 

Materials Required : A book of poems or 
fairy tales. 

One player, preferably the host or hostess, 
holds the^ffice of reader in this game, and 
should choose some short story or poem (one 
that is well known and quite tragic is best) to 
read, without telling anyone what he has se- 
lected. Every player except the reader now 
chooses a trade or profession, which he retains 
throughout the game. 

When all are ready the reader opens his book 
and reads aloud from it until he comes to a com- 
mon noun, when he looks at one of the trades- 
men, who must immediately name some article 
which he would naturally have for sale, or some 
tool connected with his trade or profession. By 
this substitution of one noun for another the 



IVbat is My Thought Like? 115 

most tragic or pathetic passage is converted 
into a jumble of absurdities. For example : 

No. 1 is a butcher; No. 2, a carpenter; No. 3, a 
grocer ; No. 4, a mason ; No. 5, a druggist ; and No. 6, 
a baker. 

The poem is Longfellow's ** Skeleton in 
Armor : " 

" Speak ! speak ! thou fearful (1) lamb 
Who, with thy hollow (2) nails 
Still in rude (3) flour drest, 
Comest to daunt me ! 
Wrapt not in Eastern (4) bricks. 
But with thy fleshless (5) gums 
Stretched as if asking (6) rolls, 
Why dost thou haunt me?" 



LXVII 

What is My Thought Like.? 

This is an old game, but will bear repeating. 
The leader begins by asking each of the play- 
ers, in turn, " What is my thought like ? " to 
which he answers the first thing that comes 
into his mind, of course avoiding naming any- 
thing already given. The leader keeps a list of 
the answers he receives, and then, telling what 



II 6 The Booh of Games 

his thought really was, asks each player in 
what way it resembles the thing he or she 
likened it to. For example : 

The leader asks of each, " What is my thought like ? " 

No. 1 says "A furnace;" No. 2, "A skate;" No. 3, 
"A book;" No. 4, "Ten cents;" No. 5, "Vanity;" 
No. 6, " A flower ; " No. 7, " Solitude ; " No. 8, " Supper ; " 
and No. 9, " Sunset." 

Leader : " My thought was * myself.' So, No. 1 , why 
am I like a furnace?" 

No. 1 : " Because you often go out." 

Leader : " And why like a skate } " 

No. 2 : " Because you are bright and hard." 

Leader : " Why am I like a book } " 

No. 3 : " Because you are well read." 

Leader : " And why like ten cents ? " 

No. 4 : " Because you sometimes pay for things." 

Leader : " Why am I like vanity 1 " 

No. 5: "Because you are in many persons' hearts." 

Leader : " And why like a flower .? " 

No. 6 : " Because you are often fresh and sometimes 
rosy." 

Leader: " Why am I like solitude?" 

No. 7 : " Because you are impossible in society." 

Leader: "Why am I like supper?" 

No. 8: " Because we all like you." 

Leader : " Why am I like sunset ? " 

No. 9: " Because you never stay long." 



Cities 117 



LXVIII 

Personal Conundrums 

These may serve to fill time between games. 
The leader propounds a conundrum comparing 
some one of the players with an inanimate 
object — furniture, an article of food, or dress. 
For example : 

The leader says, " Why is Mr. D like this table ? " 

No. 1 says, " Because he is steady ; " No. 2, " Because 
he is polished;" No. 3, "Because he can hold many 
dishes;" No. 4, "Because his complexion is dark;" 
No. 5, " Because he is always 'round." 



LXIX 
Cities 

Materials Required: As many pencils and 
sheets of paper as there are players. 

To every player a pencil and paper are given, 
with the request that he or she write at the top 
of the paper the name of the city or town in 
which the writer was born. Fifteen minutes' 
time is then allowed for all to write a sentence 



ii8 The Book of Games 

suggestive or descriptive of the city or town 
which each has written on his or her paper. 
The words in the sentence must begin with the 
letters composing the name of the city or town, 
in consecutive order. 

The following examples will make this more 
clear : 

City— New York. 

Sentence— N-ew E-very W-inter Y-ou 0-ld R-iotous 
K-nickerbocker ! 

City— Boston. 

Sentence— B - ritish 0-utrageous S-windlers T-ea 
0-verboard N-ow ! 



LXX 

Jenkins 



Materials Required : One twenty-five-cejit 
piece. 

There is a fascination about this game which 
is indescribable. It is said to be of great an- 
tiquity and common to almost every nation. 
To play Jenkins sides must be form.ed, and the 
players seat themselves at a long table, the 
opposing parties facing each other. Chance 



pnhins 119 

decides which side shall first hide the piece, 
which is usually a silver quarter or something 
easily held in the closed hand of one of the 
players. 

The captain (whose seat is in the centre of 
the line of his players, facing the captain of 
the opposite side) puts his hands under the 
table, as do all the players of his side, and they 
then shift the piece from hand to hand so as 
to deceive the opposite players as to its where- 
abouts. The captain of the players who have 
not the quarter now calls, '* Jenkins says hands 
up," and all the hands come up, closed ; then 
*' Jenkins says hands down," and all the hands 
fall, palms downward, on the table. All try to 
make as much noise as possible in banging 
their hands down, so as to drown the clink of 
the coin as it strikes the table. 

The opposing side now tries to guess whose 
hand the coin is not under. Only the captain 
of this side can give the orders to the side hold- 
ing the quarter. He directs the players who, 
he or his party think, have not the piece under 
their hands to take their hands off, but should 
any other players of this side give orders, the 



I20 The Book of Games 

side with the quarter must not obey, on pain 
of losing it. Should the captain make a mis- 
take and call up a hand under which the coin 
is hidden, the coin remains with the same side, 
and the number of hands still on the table 
counts for the side which keeps the coin. But 
if the last hand left on the table covers the 
quarter, it then goes to the opposing players. 
The side which first scores fourteen points wins 
the game. 

These directions may sound as if Jenkins 
were a serious and intricate game. Far from 
it! Try it with two captains who are clever 
and successful leaders, and you will find it 
thoroughly good fun. 



LXXI 

Short Stories 



Materials Required : As many pencils and 
sheets of paper as there are players j a prize, if 
desired. 

Try this game some time when you are at 
a loss for amusement for from five to twenty 
people. Without telling the players what the 



Short Stories 121 

game is to be, give everyone pencil and paper, 
and ask five or six persons each to suggest the 
name of a character in history or fiction or in 
real life. These everyone writes at the top oi 
his paper, in the order in which they were 
given. It may then be announced that each 
person is expected to write a short story, using 
the characters given as the dramatis personce. 
The story may be tragic, comic, love, or even 
a play or a poem will do. The players are 
allowed half an hour in which to compose 
these literary gems, and at the end of that 
time they are all collected and read aloud. A 
prize for the best story may be given, though 
the applause of the audience will probably be 
glory enough. 
This may serve as an example : 

Dramatis Personce. — Dwight L. Moody, Romeo, Polly 
Jones, Napoleon, Mrs. Guardian, Baby McKee, and 
Trilby. 

It was a gentle spring evening in Cambridge, and the 
clock in IVlrs. Guardian's select boarding-house for Rad- 
cliffe Innocents was on the stroke of nine— "Angel 
Guardian " the girls called her, a name invented by the 
popular and fascinating Trilby, the president of the class 
of '86, who was now sitting in a graceful attitude on 



122 The Book of Games 

the edge of the table, feeding Baby McKee, the Maltese 
kitten, with sweet cream and caramels, while the parrot, 
who from his skill in profanity had been christened 
Dwight L. Moody, looked sulkily down from his perch. 
A ring at the bell, and Polly Jones, the Irish maid, 
ushered in two youths on whom the suns of scarce 
twenty summers had shone. Trilby, gracefully de- 
scending to the level of the common throng, welcomed 
the visitors and inquired after the health of Miss Capu- 
let, the fiancee of the younger man, Romeo Montague. 
" Gone to Mount Auburn," he said, " to make arrange- 
ments about the ventilation of the family vault. We are 
going to give a little tea there — you'll come, won't you ? 
Our friend Nap. says he'll be on hand." Napoleon 
frowned and buttoned his gray coat. The clock struck 
ten and they were gently but firmly fired out. 



LXXII 

The Impossible Cat 

This good old game is worth repeating. Two 
captains are chosen, who in turn choose sides, 
and all are seated, the two sides facing each 
other. One captain begins, '' The Game Club 
cat is ambiguous," and then counts ten. Before 
he has finished counting the opposite captain 
must say *'The Game Club cat is agile," or 



Famous Characters 123 

some other adjective beginning with ** a." No 
one can use an adjective that has already been 
given, and if a player cannot think of one be- 
fore the opposing player counts ten he is out. 
When the adjectives beginning with '' a " have 
all been exhausted, those beginning with "b" 
are begun, and so on through the alphabet 
until all the players on one side are out, when 
the other side has won the game. 



LXXIII 

Famous Characters 

One of the players goes out of the room 
while the others decide upon the name of some 
famous person, which is made up of as many 
letters as there are players. Beginning at one 
end of the circle of players, to each is assigned a 
letter of the character's name, and each chooses 
another well-known person in history or fiction 
to impersonate, one whose name begins with 
the letter assigned him. The player who has 
gone out now returns and questions each of 
the others in the order in which he is told the 



124 The Book of Games 

letters of the name come. He must ask ques- 
tions to which *' yes " or " no " can be answered, 
and from the guessing of each individual char- 
acter he gets one letter of the whole name, and 
so on until the entire name is revealed, when 
the person whose letter suggested the name 
goes out. 

Suppose there are eight players and Dis- 
raeli is the character selected. The first player, 
having D for the initial letter of his individual 
character, chooses Diana ; the second, having I, 
takes Isaac Walton ; the third, having S, takes 
Sara Bernhardt; the fourth, having R, takes 
Robinson Crusoe; the fifth, having A, takes 
Alice in Wonderland; the sixth, having E, 
takes Elaine; the seventh, having L, takes 
Liliukolani; and the eighth, having I, takes 
Ivanhoe. 

LXXIV 

Stuff and Nonsense 

Here is a chance for fun without effort. All 
of the players being seated in a circle, one 
starts by whispering to the person at his left 



stuff and Nonsense 125 

an article (this is speaking grammatically), the 
player thus spoken to whispers to the one at 
his left an adjective, and each in turn whispers 
to the person at his left the following parts of 
speech in regular sequence : an article, an ad- 
jective, a noun (singular), a verb, an adverb, a 
number, another adjective, and a noun (plural). 
When these words have thus been whispered to 
nine players, the first player tells his word, then 
the second, third, and so on till a complete 
sentence is repeated. For example : 

The first player whispers the article the, the second 
player the adjective aggressive, the third player the noun 
motor-man, the fourth player the verb carved, the fifth 
player the adverb moroseljy, the sixth player the number 
sixty-nine, the seventh player another adjective, silljy, 
and the eighth player a noun plural, cats, to finish. 
Each now speaking his word aloud, the nonsense is this : 
" The aggressive motor-man carved morosely sixty-nine 
silly cats." 

If the party feels equal to more of this, the 
sentence may be started by someone who was 
not of the first set. An article is whispered 
again, then the adjective, noun, verb, adverb, 
tic, as before, in regular order, and another 
ridiculous combination follows. 



126 The Booh of Games 

LXXV 

Theatrical Titles of Books 

Another game needing no preparation, and 
one which is sure to be amusing, is described 
as follows : Two of the players are sent from 
the room to choose the title of a book, poem, 
or song. When this is done they plan how 
they can best act it in pantomime for the bene- 
fit of the rest of the party, who are to guess 
the title — if they can. For instance, if one of 
the impromptu actors is a young girl, she may 
come in and sit beside her companion, ear- 
nestly whispering and gesticulating, to repre- 
sent **The Confessions of a Frivolous Girl." 
For '' Innocents Abroad," the actors walk in 
carrying travelling-bags, canes, and umbrellas, 
one of them perhaps having a scarf tied around 
his hat ; then they should have guide-books and 
inquiring expressions as they walk about ex- 
amining everything closely. " Tired of House- 
keeping," T. S. Arthur; "The Betrothed," Sir 
Walter Scott; '* Kept in the Dark," Trol- 
lope ; " I Say iNo," Wilkie Collins ; '' Twice- 



Orchestra 127 

Told Tales," Nathaniel Hawthorne, and " The 
Minister's Wooing," H. B. Stowe, are a few 
suggestions for these pantomimes; while '' Be- 
hind Closed Doors " may be effectively done 
by keeping the doors closed between the room 
where the actors are and the audience, until at 
last the audience calls for them, when they can 
say that the title has been acted. 



LXXVI 
Orchestra 

No noisier game than this can be found. The 
players having chosen from among their num- 
ber a conductor, seat themselves around him 
in a circle. The conductor now assigns to each 
a musical instrument, and shows in pantomime 
exactly how it is to be played. When all have 
been provided with their imaginary instru- 
ments the conductor orders them to tune up, 
thus giving each musician a fine chance to 
make all sorts of discordant noises. 

When the different instruments have been 
tuned the conductor waves an imaginary baton 
and begins to hum a lively air, in which 



128 The Book of Games 

he is accompanied by his whole band, each 
player imitating with his voice the sounds, 
and with his hands the different movements, 
made in performing on a real instrument. 
Every now and then the conductor pretends to 
play on a certain instrument, and the player 
to whom it belongs must at once alter his 
motions to those of the conductor and keep 
silence while continuing to wield the imaginary 
baton until the leader abandons his instrument. 
Should a player fail to take the conductor's 
place at the right time he must pay a forfeit. 
The fun of this game depends very largely 
upon the humor and quickness of the con- 
ductor as he abandons his baton for the in- 
struments of the other musicians. 



LXXVII 

Bequests 



Materials Required : As many pencils and 
sheets of foolscap paper as there are players. 

All having received pencils and paper it is 
requested that every player shall draw up his 
or her will, leaving something to each one of 



Teapot 129 

the other players, no matter whether it is a 
possession, a quality, a fault or care, a hope or 
a beauty; to everyone must be given some- 
thing, and at the same time directions should be 
given as to the use to be made of each legacy. 
When all have finished the papers are col- 
lected and read aloud by the host or one of the 
players. 

LXXVIII 
Teapot 

One player goes out of the room while the 
others think of some word which has two or 
more different meanings. Suppose the word 
'' train " is selected. When the player who has 
been out comes into the room each of the 
others, in turn, says something to him — some 
sentence in which "train" is used, substituting 
for "train" the word "teapot." One says, 
for example, " I like to ride in the teapot,'' 
another says " I hear that Mr. Blank is going 
to teapot for the foot-ball match," " It is nec- 
essary to teapot children," " What a long tea^ 
pot Mrs. Brown has." 



I30 The Book of Games 

When the word is guessed the player whose 
sentence suggested it to the guesser must go 
out of the room while the others choose a 
word, and the game goes on as before. 



LXXIX 

Dumb Motions 



The players separate into two sides and de- 
cide who shall be " masters" and who " men.'* 
The men's aim is to keep at work as long as 
possible and to prevent their places being taken 
by the masters. Having consulted among them- 
selves the men decide upon a trade or profes- 
sion to engage in, one which may be illustrated 
by certain actions of the body. They now 
form a line in front of the masters, who are 
told by the leader of the men the first and last 
letters of the trade they are about to engage in. 
For example: P — — r, for painter; M — — n, 

for motor-man; F 1, for florist; I n, 

for ice-man ; W r, for waiter ; and so on. 

The men now begin to express in dumb mo- 
tions the various labors belonging to the trade 



Scouts 131 

they have chosen. Suppose they are florists, 
one of the players will seem to be watering 
flowers, another arranging them in a vase, 
another wiring the stems, and others will be 
making phantom flowers into imaginary bou- 
quets or '* set pieces." If any of the men speak 
or use wrong gestures the whole side is out. 
One guess each is allowed the masters, and if 
none of them can hit upon the right trade the 
men tell them what it was and fix upon an- 
other to act. If, however, some one of the 
masters guesses correctly, the men are out and 
become masters. If any of the men wish to 
stop work after they have continued at it for 
some time, even though the masters have not 
all made their guesses, they may do so if they 
have v/orked a reasonable time. 



LXXX 

Scouts 



In this game, which is very like Twenty 
Questions, the players divide into two parties 
and go into different rooms. Each party then 



132 The Book of Games 

sends out a ** scout," and the two meet and de- 
cide on some difficult thing to guess (a small 
object in a local shop, the left eyebrow of 
Julius Csesar, or anything equally puzzling), and 
then return to the rooms, each going to his 
opponent's party, where questions are asked 
him in quick succession, as the side guessing 
first is the winning one and can take posses- 
sion of both "scouts." Only those questions 
which can be answered by ''yes," " no," or '* I 
don't know" are allowable. As in Twenty 
Questions, it is first discovered whether the ob- 
ject is " animal," ■'' vegetable," or " mineral," 
and after this is settled the questions come 
thick and fast until one of the parties has won 
the guessing race, when a shout or a whistle 
proclaims the fact to their opponents. 



LXXXI 

Commercial Traveller 

This is one of the convenient games which 
can be played on the spur of the moment, and 
requires no materials, not even the usual pen- 



Commercial Traveller 133 

cil and paper. The players being seated in a 
circle a leader is chosen, who, beginning any- 
where in the circle, asks questions which must 
be answered alphabetically; that is, the first 
person's words should all begin with " a," the 
second with " b," and so on. For example : 

Leader : " Ladies and gentlemen, we will suppose that 
you are all commercial travellers about to start on a 
journey to any part of the world you may prefer, on 
business. Will you each kindly tell me where you are 
going and for what purpose, naming your destinations 
and errands alphabetically ? " 

Leader : " Where are you going, No. 1 ? " Answer : 
" To Annapolis." 

"What will you do there?" Answer: "Advertise 
anaesthetics." 

" I am going to Bayreuth," says the next. " What 
will do there ? " asks the leader. Answer : " Boast * Bur- 
nishine' brightens boilers." 

Each person is asked in turn by the leader, " Where 
are you going ? " and " What will you do there ? " 

C goes to Chicago, to catch Columbian coins. 

D to Damascus, to dun dancing dervishes. 

E to England, to enjoy eagerly every entertainment. 

F to Florida, to find a fortune in fly-paper. 

G to Glasgow, t / gayly gather guineas. 

H to Hayti, to have hard hustling. 

I to India, to inspect idols. 



134 The Book of Games 

J to Jersey, to jump on jays. 

K to Khartoum, to keep knitted knee-caps and knives. 

L to Leominster, to learn lying. 

M to Montreal, to make money. 

N to Naples, to negotiate neatly. 

O to Oklahoma, to open an oyster-shop. 

P to Pittsburgh, to pull in pennies. 

Q to Quito, to quote quinces. 

R to Russia, to rush rice and raisins. 

S to Senegambia, to sell saucepans. 

T to Turkey, to treat the trade. 

U to Uruguay, to urge the unwilling. 

V to Vienna, to victimize various viscounts. 
W to Washington, to willingly waste wages. 

Y to Yazoo, to yell at yielding yokels. 
Z to Zanzibar, to zealously sell zebras. 



LXXXII 

The Seasons 



The first player or leader, who begins the 
game, alone understands the trick or motive 
of this game. He begins by addressing one of 
the players in this way : " Will you go in the 
spring, summer, autumn, or winter.?" The 
person questioned replies, naming any one of 



IVho is My Neighbor? 135 

the seasons. Suppose "spring" was answered, 
the game will properly proceed in this way : 

Leader : " What will you take with you ? " Answer : 
" Soda." 

Leader: " What will you wear ? " Answer: "I'll wear 
a sombrero, shooting-suit, and slippers." 

Leader: "What will you do?" Answer: "I'll sing 
songs." 

The words in the answers should all begin 
with the first letter of the season chosen. If 
autumn has been answered, the replies should 
begin with " a ; " if winter, with " w." But as 
no one but the leader understands the trick 
the replies will be haphazard, and everyone 
who is wrong must pay a forfeit, while the 
question passes to the next person. 



LXXXIII 

Who is My Neighbor.? 

This is a lively game for beginning an even- 
ing, and particularly useful in an emergency, 
for it can be played without preparation of any 
kind. One-half of the company are blind- 
folded ; these helpless ones are then seated in 



136 The Book of Games 

such a way that each has a vacant chair at his 
right hand. The remaining half of the play- 
ers now gather in the middle of the room, in 
perfect silence. The leader announces that at 
a given signal the unblindfolded players will 
each take one of the empty seats next to those 
who are blindfolded, and when requested to 
sing the unblindfolded must do so, disguising 
their voices if they choose. The blindfolded 
persons must not sing, but must listen atten- 
tively and each try to guess who his singing 
right-hand neighbor is. Each blindfolded play- 
er is not to remove his bandage until he gives 
correctly the name of his right-hand neighbor, 
who then takes off the bandage of the success- 
ful guesser, and must submit to be bandaged 
in his turn and to take the guesser's place. 

When the secret signal is given the players 
who are unblindfolded creep noiselessly to the 
vacant chairs ; the leader then goes to the 
piano and begins to play the accompaniment 
to some familiar song like *' Marching Through 
Georgia." " Sing," he cries, and all the un- 
blindfolded players do their best — or worst — 
until the leader cries '' Enough." The blind- 



How? Where? When? 137 

folded then guess who the singers at their right 
hand were. Those whose guesses are wrong 
must remain blindfolded until the next time, 
when perhaps, with wisdom learned from their 
first failure, they will guess correctly and be 
released. 



LXXXIV 

How 1 Where ? When ? 

One of the players is sent from the room 
while the others decide upon a subject, which 
may be anything about which the three ques- 
tions, ** How do you hke it ? " " Where do you 
like it ? " and '' When do you like it ? " may 
be asked. It should be some word with two 
or three meanings, as such a word renders the 
answers quite confusing and misleading. For 
instance, if vain (vein, vane) be the word 
chosen, one of the players may say, in answer 
to the first question, that he likes it " Of 
gold" (vein); in answer to the second, that he 
likes it " On a steeple " (vane) ; and in answer 
to the third, that he likes it " When it is con- 
spicuous by its absence " (vain). 



138 The Book of Games 

When the out-player comes in he puts the 
first question to the nearest player, who re- 
turns a puzzling answer ; he then passes to the 
next and repeats the same question, then to 
the next, and so on till he has gone around the 
room. If none of the answers enables him to 
guess the subject he tries each player with the 
next question, and if then he is still in the dark 
he asks a reply from each to the third and last 
question. Should he fail to guess the subject 
after asking all the questions he must go out 
again, but should he guess it during his rounds 
the player last questioned must go out of the 
room in his place. 



LXXXV 

Nonsense Rhymes 

Materials Required : As many peiicih and 
sheets of paper as there are players ; a prize, if 
desired. 

Who doesn't enjoy Lear's " Nonsense 
Rhymes ? " His metre is so simple that al- 
most anyone can imitate it, in a way, and an 
amusing game may be played with this for the 



Button, Button, Negatively 139 

motive. Each person receives pencil and paper, 
and is asked to produce a nonsense rhyme ac- 
cording to Lear. The following is an example : 
" There was a young man of Bridgeport 
Who sat on the stove just for sport, 
And though he was burned, 
No lesson he learned, 
This eccentric young man of Bridgeport." 



LXXXVI 
Button, Button, Negatively 
This is a new way of playing an old game. 
The players sit around the room in a circle or 
hollow square. One who is the leader then 
takes a button and holding it between his 
hands, which are pressed palms together, so as 
to conceal it, goes around the circle. Each 
player holds his or her hands together in the 
same way, and as the leader goes around he 
presses his hands between those of the other 
players, in turn, saying to each, *' Hold fast 
what I give you," and being careful not to 
show into whose hand he drops the button. 
When the circuit has been made the leader 
goes to the first player and says, '* Button, 



I40 The Book of Gaines 

button, who hasn't got the button ? " and this 
person must answer, naming someone who he 
supposes hasn't it. 

So it goes on around the ring until all have 
answered this question according to their be- 
lief, when the leader cries, " Button, button, 
rise ! " and the button holder does so. Then 
if there is anyone who guessed that the person 
who really held the button did not hold it he 
becomes a " ghost " and out of the charmed 
circle; the player who held the button be- 
comes leader and the game goes on. If no 
one is caught, however, the game proceeds as 
before, the leader changing places with the 
player who held the button. The ** ghosts'* 
can only become mortal and again join the 
circle when they can gti some player in the 
circle to speak to them, and then that mortal 
must take the '* ghost's " place. 



LXXXVII 

Gardening 

This is gardening made easy. Each of the 
players is asked in turn what was planted in 



Philopena 141 

his garden and what came up. Articles planted 
may be of any description, but must come up 
plants of some kind whose names have some 
punning connection with the articles planted. 
For example : 

First player : " I planted a ball and it came up a rub- 
ber-plant." 

Second player: "I planted the United States and it 
came up a carnation " (car nation). 

Third player : " I planted a calendar and it came up 
dates." 

Fourth player : " I planted a ship and it came up in 
dock." 

Fifth player : " I planted an old coat and it came up 
firs" (furs). 

Sixth player: "I planted a watch and it came up 
four-o'clock." 

Seventh player : " I planted an unattractive girl and 
she came up a wall-flower." 

Eighth player : " I planted some steps and they came 
up hops." 

LXXXVIII 

Philopena 

The company take seats in two lines, facing 
each other, leaving room between the lines for 
the leader to walk up and down. The leader 



142 The Book of Games 

stops in front of some person and, addressing 
such person by name, asks a question. The per- 
son addressed must not make any reply, but the 
one opposite the person addressed (and behind 
the leader) must respond before the leader 
counts ten, in which case the leader tries again, 
endeavoring to catch someone suddenly off 
guard. If the person addressed directly an- 
swers the question by so much as a word, or 
if the one behind the questioner fails to answer 
within the prescribed time, the person at fault 
becomes the leader, in turn, and the previous 
leader takes such player's seat. 

This may also be played without requiring 
the leader to stand in front of the person 
addressed, but the leader may from any loca- 
tion address any of the company by name, 
when such person may not reply, but the one 
opposite must do so. 



LXXXIX 

Cross-questions and Silly Answers 

The company being arranged in two lines 
racing each other, preferably ladies on one side 



Cross-questions and Silly Answers 143 

and gentlemen on the other, except two per- 
sons, a lady and gentleman, for leaders, the 
lady leader walks down the line behind the 
gentlemen and whispers to each a serious 
question to be propounded in turn to the lady 
opposite. The gentleman leader proceeds to 
whisper in the ear of each lady in the opposite 
line an absurd answer to give to the question 
to be propounded. There must, of course, be 
no collusion between the leaders as to the ques- 
tions and answers to be given. Then, starting 
at the head of the line, the first gentleman pro- 
pounds the question assigned him and the op- 
posite lady replies with her answer, the ques- 
tion and answer being repeated three times, 
and during such time neither he nor she may 
so much as smile, the penalty for so doing be- 
ing a forfeit. 

Each couple does likewise, in turn, after 
which two other leaders may be selected, and 
the game repeated, assigning the questions this 
time to the ladies and the answers to the gen- 
tlemen. Instead of forfeits, each person who 
laughs may be compelled to withdraw, and the 
one who is the last to succumb wins the prize. 



144 The Book of Games 

XC 

Spirits 

Materials Required : A prise ^ if desired. 

From fifteen to twenty people can play this 
game, and if they are quick-witted it will cer- 
tainly be a success. The players being seated 
around the room in a circle, one of their num- 
ber, who has made himself familiar with the 
directions, explains the working of the game 
in this way : 

The first player names a letter, any letter in 
the alphabet ; the second, thinking of a word, 
supplies the second letter in it ; the third, with 
a different word in mind, gives a third letter, 
taking care not to finish the word ; and so on 
until some player is forced to give the last let- 
ter to a word. By so doing he incurs the 
penalty of a forfeit, which consists in losing an 
imaginary " life," of which, at the beginning 
of the game, each person has three. When a 
player has in this way lost all three lives he be- 
comes a ''spirit," and leaves the circle. He 



spirits 145 

may, however, " haunt " his former compan- 
ions, and if he can succeed in getting one of 
them to speak to him or answer a question, 
he forces him to lose one of his lives. If a 
player, in naming a letter, is suspected of not 
having a word in mind he may be challenged, 
and if he cannot think of a word which his let- 
ter will help to make he must lose a "life;" 
if, however, the suspicion was unfounded and 
he had a legitimate word in mind, his chal- 
lenger loses a " life." 

When a word is completed the next player 
begins another, and the game goes on. No 
word can ever be finished which forms in its 
progress a shorter word (as "is" in island, 
"for" in forfeit), and, of course, any player 
who finishes even a word of two letters in this 
way loses a life. 

The following is an example of the way the 
game is played : 

No. 1 begins a word by the letter s. No. 2, thinking 
of scowl, says c (sc). No. 3, thinking of scan, says a 
(sea). No. 4, to avoid finishing, and thinking of scale, 
says 1 (seal). No. 5 gives another 1 (scall), and is chal- 
lenged, but answers satisfactorily that he was thinking 



146 The Booh of Games 

of scallop. No. 6 says o (scallo). And No. 7 is forced 
to finish the word by giving p (scallop), thereby losing 
a " life." 

While the party of spirits is being added to, 
the players in the circle grow fewer and fewer, 
until at last, when but one person survives, the 
game is ended, and the ** living" player may 
receive a prize. 



XCI 

Wordy Word 



Materials Required : As 7nany pencils and 
sheets of paper as there are players j a prize, if 
desired. 

Each person is provided with a slip of paper 
and pencil. Then the leader selects some ordi- 
nary (or extraordinary) word of ten to twenty 
letters, which all write down; and, with the 
letters composing such word, as many other 
words as possible are constructed, proper names 
and foreign languages being barred. The per- 
son discovering the most words wins the prize. 
It will be found surprising how many other 
words can be constructed from the letters of 



Advice 147 

some simple noun. For instance, the word 
"schedule" contains more than fifty other 
words. 



XCII 
Advice 



Materials Required : As many pencils and 
slips of paper ^ three by Jive inches ^ as there are 
players. 

The players having all been supplied with 
pencils and paper, each writes a piece of ad- 
vice; the slips of paper are then folded and 
all are collected. They are then shuffled in a 
bowl and each player draws one, but before 
opening it he must express his opinion of the 
advice, whether he thinks it good or uncalled 
for. After expressing himself freely about 
it, he reads the advice aloud. For example, 
A says he thinks his advice is about right, 
and then reads from the slip of paper he 
has drawn : "■ Don't be so sure of your own 
charms." 

Another game of Advice will prove very 
amusing for a party of people knowing one 



148 The Booh of Games 

another well. The hostess asks each one of 
her guests to bring a letter of advice or admo- 
nition addressed to one of the other guests and 
signed by still another person who has been 
invited. At supper each guest finds one of 
these letters at his or her place, and is asked 
to read it aloud between courses. A lively 
supper will be the result. 



XCIII 

Fire 

Materials Required : A knotted handker- 
chief. 

Two captains are chosen, and each chooses, 
in turn, his players until the party is divided 
equally. The sides being seated in two rows 
facing each other, the captain whose turn it 
would be to choose begins the game. l\aking 
a knotted handkerchief he throws it suddenly 
at one of the players opposite, calling out at 
the same time either "Earth!" "Water!" 
" Air ! " or " Fire ! " If " Earth " is called, the 
player into whose lap the handkerchief falls 
must name some quadruped before the other 



// 149 

can count ten ; if '' Water," he must name a 
fish; if *' Air," a bird ; and if " Fire," he must 
remain perfectly silent. Should the player fail 
to name an animal, or name the wrong one, 
or speak when he ought to be silent, he must 
drop out of the game, and the player who 
threw the handkerchief at him may take and 
throw it at someone else. But should he an- 
swer properly he must throw the handkerchief 
at a player on the opposite side, call an element, 
and count ten. 

In this way the game goes on until all of one 
side have had to drop out, when the opposing 
side has won. Those who have never played 
this simple game can have no idea of the 
absurd mistakes the different players make 
when called upon quickly. 



XCIV 

IT 

Before starting this game it will be well to 
inquire who knows how to play "It," for there 
must be at least one person in the party who 
has never been initiated into "It's" mysteries. 



150 The Book of Games 

This must be diplomatically discovered, how- 
ever, as it is important that the player selected 
should not suspect a trick. When such a per- 
son is found he is sent out of the room ; but 
before going he is told that the game is a form 
of "Twenty Questions," and that the other 
players will choose some object for him to 
guess, and when he comes back he is to ask a 
question of each person, in turn, so as to dis- 
cover from their answers what the object is. 
All questions must be such as can be answered 
by ** yes," " no," or ** I don't know." 

After this player has gone out the hostess ex- 
plains to the rest, who are seated around the 
room, that each is to fix upon his left-hand 
neighbor as the object to be guessed, and an- 
swer all questions as they apply to this person 
on their left. It will be well to rearrange the 
party so that there will be first a lady and then 
a gentleman, and so on around the circle. For 
example : 

The Out-player asks of No. 1 (a lady), " Is it an ani- 
mal?" No. 1: "Yes." 

Out-player, to No. 2 (a gentleman) : " Is it a human 
being?" No. 2: "Yes." 



Telegrams 151 

Out-player, to No. 3 (a lady) : " Does it wear puffed 
sleeves?" No. 3 (speaking of No. 4, a gentleman): 
" No." 

Out-player, to No. 4 : " Does it smoke ? " No. 4 (speak- 
ing of No. 5, a lady) : " I don't know." 

Out-player, to No. 5 : " Is it beautiful ? " No. 5 (speak- 
ing of No. 6, a gentleman) : " No." 

Out-player, to No. 6: "Is it's hair long?" No. 6 
(speaking of No. 7, a lady) : " Yes." 

Out-player, to No. 7: "Is its hair six inches long?" 
No. 7 (speaking of No. 8, a gentleman) : " No." 

These conflicting answers will completely 
perplex the guesser and will be very amusing 
to the rest of the party for some time. 



xcv 

Telegrams 



Materials Required : A pad of paper ; as 
many lead-pencils as there are players. 

Pencils and paper are distributed, and ten of 
the players are asked each to give a letter of 
the alphabet. These letters every player of the 
party writes in sequence at the top of his or her 
sheet of paper. The hostess then announces 



152 The Book of Games 

that everyone is to write a telegram, the ten 
words to begin with the ten letters given, in 
consecutive order, as : 

Letters given : S, A, Q, T, L, N, K, M, B, E. 
Telegram : " Send arnica quickly ; tell Lizzie nothing ; 
kitten mutilated by expressman." 

Or a subject may be given for all to write 
on — as an accident, a proposal of marriage, 
congratulations, condolences, or an appoint- 
ment. 



XCVI 

Boston Telegrams 

Materials Required : As many pencils and 
twice as many sheets of paper as there are players. 

This game, as its name suggests, is more 
difficult than the ordinary telegrams. The 
players are seated in a circle, each with pen- 
cil and paper. No. 1 writes the letter A at the 
top of his or her paper; No. 2, B; No. 3, C; 
and so on until each has a different letter of the 
alphabet. All are then asked to write a tele- 



Postman 153 

gram, every one of the ten words in it to begin 
with the same letter — the one written on each 
paper. The time allowed is fifteen minutes. 

When this is done each passes his telegram 
to his right-hand neighbor, who must write a 
telegram in answer, every one of the ten words 
to begin with the letter first assigned him. For 
example : 

First telegram : " Adorable American, ardent admirer 
asks affection and appreciation ; answer affirmatively." 

Second telegram, answering : " Blundering British 
bore, begone; bright Boston banker brings betrothal 
bracelet." 



XCVII 

Postman 



Materials Required : List of as 7nany cities 
and towns as there are players j a large hand- 
kerchief. 

This is an exciting game and may be played 
by an unlimited number, being specially adapt- 
ed for a large party. One of the players is 
blindfolded, and he is called the Postman, an- 
other volunteers to fill the office of Postmaster, 



154 The Book of Games 

and all the rest of the players seat themselves 
around the room (which has been cleared of 
furniture as much as possible). No empty 
chairs must be left. The Postmaster assigns 
to each player the name of a city or town. It 
would be well to prepare a list of places before- 
hand, as many as there are players, in case the 
Postmaster's memory fails. The blind Post- 
man is next placed in the centre of the room, 
and the Postmaster takes a position where he 
can overlook the players. He then calls out, 
" I have sent a letter from St. Louis to New 
Haven," for example, and the players repre- 
senting those cities quickly change places. As 
they run the Postman tries to capture one of 
them, and if he can do this or can manage to 
sit down in an empty chair, the player who is 
caught or whose chair he has taken becomes 
Postman. 

The Postmaster is not changed unless he 
grows tired of his position, which is not an 
easy one, as he must call the mails between 
the different places in quick succession. If a 
player remains seated when his name is called 
he is obliged to take the Postman's place. 



Barber Shop 155 

XCVIII 

Barber Shop 

One gentleman of the party is selected to be 
the victim in this game. He is invited into 
another room where he sees three lovely maid- 
ens standing behind a sofa, and does not see a 
small boy who is concealed back of the sofa. 
The leader tells him that this is a Barber shop, 
and asks which he will have, a " shave, sham- 
poo, or hair cut ? " His choice being ex- 
pressed, he is blindfolded and led to the sofa, 
where he is seated ; and at a given signal the 
small boy rises, leans over the back of the 
sofa, and kisses him on the cheek, dodging 
quickly back before the blindfolded one can 
tear off the handkerchief. Needless to say, 
there is much merriment among the spectators, 
and the feelings of the victim are better imag- 
ined than described. 



156 The Book of Games 

XCIX 
Royal Lady 

This game, though not new, is highly enter- 
taining, and requires nothing but two or three 
aozen twisted paper horns or lamplighters, and 
a circle of gamesome people. One begins by 
saying to his right hand neighbor, " Good- 
evening, Royal Lady (or Gentleman) I, a 
Royal Gentleman, come from a Royal Gentle- 
man to say that I have an ostrich." 

The lady addressed in turn says to her right- 
hand neighbor, " Good-evening, Royal Gentle- 
man ; I, a Royal Lady, come from a Royal 
Gentleman, to say that I have an ostrich with 
a wooden leg." 

Each must repeat this formula, only varying 
it according to whether they are addressing a 
a lady or gentleman, and each time adding 
something to the description of the ostrich, or 
whatever animal has been spoken of. The 
first player who makes a mistake or omission 
must be decorated with a paper horn; and 
thereafter must be addressed as " One-horned 



Horn Monkey 157 

Lady or Gentleman." The game goes on till 
most of the players are bristling with horns, 
when if there be one who is hornless, he or she 
is the winner. 



Horn Monkey 



Chicago is said to be the home of Horn 
Monkey. It is played as follows : A circle of 
players is formed and the hostess or leader asks 
one of the company to start the game by nam- 
ing an animal whose initial letter is "A," as 
Ape. The next player to the left says *' Ape, 
Bear " (or any other animal whose initial is B), 
and so it goes on alphabetically around the 
circle, each player repeating in correct order the 
animals which have been given, and adding 
one whose initial comes next. Should any 
player fail in this he is called derisively a 
" Horn Monkey," and no one thereafter must 
fail to say " Horn Monkey" when he comes to 
the break in the sequence of animals' names. 
There are apt to be several Horn Monkeys, and 
the more the merrier ! 



158 The Booh of Games 

CI 

Useless Information 

Materials Required : A book of useful in- 
formation ; a box of candy. 

This game originated at a well-known club 
in New York, whose members never weary of 
playing it. One of the almanacs published by 
a daily paper, or any other book of useful in- 
formation, in the hands of a fluent talker with 
ready wit is sufficient material for a splendid 
game. When the players are gathered in a 
circle the leader asks a question like, ** What 
per cent, of sulphur does a man's body contain 
— I want the exact per cent ! " The answers 
are sure to be wild, but the one whose guess is 
nearest is the winner, and must drop out of 
the game until after the next question has been 
answered. Impromptu prizes, such as Alice in 
Wonderland gave in the Caucus Race may be 
given to the winners ; or a box of candy will 
furnish prizes for a whole evening if a bon- 
bon rewards each player who is nearest right. 



PART in 
GAMES FOR SPECIAL OCCASIONS 



CII 

New Year's Resolutions 

Materials Required : As many pencils and 
sheets of paper as there are players. 

For a New Year's party, or for one given 
within a few days of January 1st, a good sug- 
gestion is New Year's resolutions. Pencils and 
paper are brought out, and every guest is asked 
to write his or her resolutions for the new 
year ; or, if preferred, to write someone else's 
resolutions (or those someone else ought to 
make), signed by that person. The papers are 
then folded, collected, and then drawn, one 
apiece, by the players, and each in turn reads 
aloud the resolutions which have come to him 
or her. For example : 

This first day of January, 18—, I resolve to follow 
these rules for the coming year : 

I. If I can't be honest, I'll be as honest as I can. 

II. I will chew no more taffy with my imported ivories 

III. I must walk with my right foot on the left side. 

IV. I must stop smoking in my sleep ; and, 
V. Walk around the block before rising. 



1 62 The Booh of Games 

cm 

St. Valentine's Day 

Materials Required : The reader is referred 
to the detailed descriptions of the following games. 

As the fourteenth of February draws near 
perhaps you will plan a St. Valentine's party. 
If your guests are clever people you will do 
well to ask each to write one or more valen- 
tines to bring on the appointed evening — 
valentines specially appropriate to some of the 
other guests. After all have arrived and the 
valentines have been collected, pin them to a 
huge red-heart sofa-pillow (easy to fashion of 
turkey-red cotton), those for the gentlemen be- 
ing fastened on one side and the ladies' on the 
other. At the top of the heart a loop of red 
silk cord or ribbon is attached, large enough to 
enable the hostess to hang it on her arm as she 
walks from one to another of her guests, asking 
each gentleman to take a valentine addressed 
to a lady and each lady one to a gentleman. 

When everyone has a valentine the hostess 
asks one of the players to read the one he or she 



St. Valentine's Day 163 

has aloud, and this is done, in turn, until all are 
read, and another round is made with the valen- 
tine-covered heart. If your party is informal, and 
your guests are friends, you will find this game 
delightfully amusing. Here is an example : 

TO THOMPSON, FROM HIS VALENTINE 

O Thompson, be humble; we're weary with viewing 
The airs and the graces you lately have worn. 
Pray remember that some of us sported the purple 
'Mid the crime de la creme 'ere you ever were born. 
Just because some large-hearted and pitying neighbor 
Sought to soothe your aspiring dissatisfied soul 
By lauding your manners, your voice, and your paces, 
You are walking on stilts and with high-rollers roll ! 
Your voice — well now, Thompson, you know it's not 

mellow. 
No more than a buzz-saw or tired-out loon ; 
And yet you have swallowed this mild piece of satire 
And roar out in church like a bursted bassoon ! 
Your high-stepping horses we know are on credit ; 
Your journeys to Europe all charged to the house. 
Swell out, if you like, 'mid your tape and your hairpins. 
But here, at the Game Club, be still as a mouse. 
To these words, my dear fellow, I trust you will hearken, 
And on your bad courses will draw a tight rein. 
Be humble, be modest, be truthful and sober, 
And the Game Club will dub you" nice Thompson" 

again. 



164 The Book of Games 

The sofa- pillow makes a good prize for the 
next game, which is a highly appropriate con- 
test — shooting at a heart-shaped target with a 
small and much-beribboned bow and gay gilded 
dart. The frame for the target can be made 
by a carpenter at small expense ; it should then 
be covered with red paper and a small gilt -paper 
heart pasted in the centre of it by way of a bull's- 
eye. The ladies and gentlemen shoot in turn, 
and the best shot receives the heart sofa- pillow 
as a prize. 

Alphabetical Compliments is a restful game 
after the archery contest. Each gentleman re- 
ceives a card or slip of paper, on which is 
written the name of a lady — some one of the 
party. The host then calls a gentleman and 
asks him to go to the lady whose name is on 
his card and pay her a compliment, each word 
of which must begin with the first letter of her 
Christian name. She must gracefully reply, 
using for the first letter of every word the let- 
ter his name begins with. For example : 

Compliment : " Claire's charms claim compliments." 
Reply : ^' Artless Alexander adores alliterative ambig- 
uous allusions and anodyne adjectives." 



Washington's Birthday 165 

When all have given or replied to a com- 
pliment a vote is taken as to who paid the 
cleverest compliment and who made the best 
reply, and the prizes are awarded accord- 
ingly. 

After this game it is surely time for supper. 
If one wishes, and a caterer is not out of the 
question, it is attractive to have ices and cakes 
in the shape and color of hearts at supper, but 
this is not necessary, and of course is not pos- 
sible out of town without a good deal of 
trouble and expense. 

A Heart Hunt, modelled on the "Peanut 
Hunt " described elsewhere, may follow sup- 
per. The white candy hearts, red lettered in 
loving messages (which are to be hidden in 
place of peanuts), are obtainable at almost any 
small confectioner's. After this — Good-night. 



CIV 

Washington's Birthday 

A tea-party of the olden time is an appro- 
priate celebration of Washington's Birthday. 



1 66 The Book of Games 

If possible, the room where the guests are to 
be entertained should contain a number of 
pieces of antique furniture. Everyone should 
be asked to come in eighteenth-century dress — 
the ladies in short-waisted gowns, powder, and 
patches, the gentlemen in knee-breeches, with 
coats of broadcloth, silk stockings, and buckled 
shoes. Each should be asked to bring some- 
thing curious and ancient — some heirloom, if 
possible, with a story attached to it. In these 
days of Colonial Dames and Sons and Daugh- 
ters of the Revolution almost everyone has 
some adventure of an ancestor or romance of 
an ancestress to tell; and when every guest 
has either told a story or shown a relic, such 
old-fashioned games as Hunt the Slipper, Hide 
the Thimble, London Bridge, or Battledore and 
Shuttlecock may be played. 

At supper in the olden time, a chronicler 
tells us '' our fare consisted of cold ham and 
tongue, jellies, whips, custards, creams, blanc- 
mange, tarts, puddings, cheese-cakes, grapes, 
nuts, almonds, cakes of every variety, and 
confectionery." Here is certainly a long list 
to choose from, for this bill of fare, divided by 



April First 167 

two or even three, would suffice for the appe- 
tite of the chronicler's great-granddaughter. 
After supper a few old-fashioned dances — 
contra dances, reels, and a minuet, will be 
quite in keeping, and at midnight the party is 
over. 

CV 

April First 

Materials Required : A prize for each game. 

April Fool's Day doesn't seem a very ap- 
propriate occasion for a party. Just because 
it is unusual, however, it may be most suc- 
cessful. When you send your invitations, if 
you ask each person to come prepared to do 
a sleight-of-hand trick the evening's entertain- 
ment is at least half arranged. Transparent 
and old tricks are not debarred, though of 
course new ones are most acceptable. Arrange- 
ment should be made for the table for the 
conjurers and chairs for the audience. If you 
have two rooms with folding double doors 
or portieres between, this will be the best place 
for the ganies. A box of " April-fool candy," 



1 68 The Book of Games 

a "Jack-in-the-box," or other toy, may be 
given as a prize for the best trick. 

At supper surprises may be very apropos. 
Any housekeeper will think of things in the 
way of eatables which are not what they seem, 
but should all else fail ice-cream in surprising 
colors and shapes may be served. A prize 
should be given at the end of the evening to 
the person who has not been " April fooled " 
all the evening long, also to the one who has 
successfully fooled the greatest number of 
persons. 



CVI 

Hallowe'en 



Materials Required : The reader is referred 
to the detailed descriptions of the following games. 

To deviate from the old customs and games 
on this day of all others would never do, and 
lest some of these traditions should be over- 
looked or forgotten, they are repeated here. 

Fortune Hunting is not what its name usu- 
ally implies, but is very amusing. -^ A ring, a 



Hallowe'en 169 

piece of money, and a thimble are hidden be- 
forehand in different places in the room where 
the guests are to be entertained. This game 
may be the first of the evening. The player 
who finds the ring will be married first and 
" Live happily ever after ; " the one who finds 
the money will have wealth, and the person 
who finds the thimble will live unmarried to 
the end of his or her life. 

Fortunes. — A novel fortune-telling device is 
arranged beforehand in this way. The hostess 
collects a number of small articles, each sug- 
gestive of some profession or business : An 
army and a navy button, a box of sugar pills, 
a pen, a palette, a piece of ticker tape, a bit of 
coal or iron, or just a package of earth. There 
should be as many of these articles as there 
are ladies invited, and they should be wrapped 
in paper and popped into a large bag, which is 
brought out on the night of the party, and 
each maiden " puts in her thumb and pulls out 
a plum." Whoever gets the navy button will 
marry a sailor, the one who pulls out the 
package of earth will be a farmer's bride, tic. 
For the gentlemen a tray of sealed envelopes 



170 The Book of Games 

is handed about and each draws one. They 
will be found to contain pictures of girls. In 
one a bicycle girl, in another a sweet little 
cook, while still another is golfing, and these 
are prophetic of the kind of wife each will 
have. 

Candle and Looking-glass Test, — Each per- 
son in turn walks down-stairs backward, alone ; 
with a looking-glass in one hand and a lighted 
candle in the other. It is supposed that each 
will see the face of his or her future wife or 
husband in the glass. Instead of this test, an- 
other, it is said, will bring the same result. 
This is to run three times round the outside of 
the house with one's mouth full of water. 

The Lead Test. — Each person melts some 
lead (it is easily done in a saucepan over a coal 
fire), and pours it through a key-handle or a 
wedding-ring into a pail or basin of water. 
The lead cools in strange shapes which anyone 
who is ingenious can interpret very amusingly. 

Snap-dragon, that good old sport, may be 
played in two ways, with raisins or with verses 
written beforehand on slips of paper folded 
very small and covered with tin-foil. They 



Hallowe'en 171 

are placed in an earthen or tin dish and covered 
with water, over which alcohol is poured and 
set afire. Each player must try while it is 
burning to snatch a snap-dragon, which may 
be a raisin or one of the verses which is sup- 
posed to tell his fortune. The dish should be 
placed in the middle of a bare table, and great 
care must be taken that the drops of burning 
alcohol do not set anything on fire. In pour- 
ing the alcohol on to the water it should flow 
down the side of the dish gently so that it will 
float on the water and not mix with it. 

Floating Needles is great fun. Take greased 
needles and float them in a basin of water in 
this way. First lay a piece of tissue-paper on 
the water and place the needle upon it. Soon 
the paper will become wet and sink, leaving 
the needle floating. Each person has his own 
needle, and it is very funny to watch its ac- 
tions ; sometimes it will rush to the edge of 
the dish, sometimes run into another player's 
needle and cling to it. The way in which one 
player's needle behaves toward the others is 
understood to be prophetic. 

Bobbing for Apples. — This is one of the chil- 



172 The Book of Games 

dren's favorites. A tub of water, in which sev- 
eral apples are floating, is brought in ; and each 
person in turn tries to lift one out with his 
teeth alone. 

77?^ Water Charm. — Three dishes are placed 
on a table, one containing clear water, one 
soapy water, and one empty. The guests are 
blindfolded in turn and led to the dishes, which 
have been changed about so that the blind- 
folded person cannot know their relative posi- 
tions. He puts his finger into one. If it is the 
clear water he will be happily married, if the 
soapy water he will marry a widow, and if it 
is the empty one he will never marry. 

Kaling, — This can only be played at a coun- 
try house where there is a vegetable garden 
near by. Two players at a time are blind- 
folded and led to the cabbage bed, where each 
pulls up a cabbage stalk and returns to the 
house. The shape of the stalk means much to 
the interpreter ; if it is straight and shapely the 
omen is a good one, especially if there is a 
quantity of dirt (representing wealth) clinging 
to the roots. 



Topsy-turvy and Christmas Party 173 

CVII 

Topsy-turvy and Christmas Party 

Materials Required : A miniature Christ- 
mas-tree ; as many numbered cards in duplicate 
as there are guests. 

Have you ever thought of giving a Topsy- 
turvy party — one where everything is as it 
ought not to be ? Here is a programme for 
one which is a Christmas party as well, and if 
given in Christmas week is pretty sure to be a 
success. Every guest is asked to bring a sim- 
ple Christmas present, appropriate for a lady 
or gentleman, as is preferred. 

programme 

No. 1. The Unexpected. 
No. 2. Little, but oh my ! 
No. 3. Have a Smile with vaO. 
No. 4. A Freak of Fancy. 
No. 5. A Draw Game. 
No. 6. } 

"The Unexpected" is supper, a very light 
one. " Little, but oh my ! " is the Christmas- 



174 The Book of Games 

tree, the smallest possible tree, hung from the 
celling upside down. There should be a very 
tall and thin Santa Claus. The presents, 
neatly done up, each bear a number, and these 
numbers match others which were drawn by 
the players before the games began. As the 
numbers on the packages are called the play- 
ers who hold the duplicate numbers claim their 
presents, which are sure to be malapropos, as 
there is no possibility of anyone getting what 
was intended for him. 

The rest of the evening is devoted to sev- 
eral games already described. No. 3 on the 
programme, "Have a Smile with me?" is 
'' Nonsense Rhyming." As a prize for the 
best rhyme that very curious and attractive 
book, *'Topsys and Turvys," by Peter Newell, 
seems particularly appropriate. *' A Freak of 
Fancy " is the game called " Teapot." " A 
Draw Game" is drawing pigs with the eyes 
shut ; see " Blind Artists." " } " is the second 
and bona-fide supper. And after that, good- 
morning, for it will surely be after twelve. 



A Children's Party for Grown People 175 

CVIII 

A Children's Party for Grown People 

An entirely novel and funny plan is to ask 
fifteen or twenty grown people to a children's 
party, where they themselves are to be the chil- 
dren. Raids on the nursery can be made for 
blocks, puzzles, balls, battledore and shuttle- 
cock, and other toys, and these, with such 
games as " A Spoonful of Fun," ** Hunt the 
Whistle," " Teapot," and "■ Here we go round 
the Barberry Bush," will furnish amusement 
for the young people if it is the season for 
in-door games. " The Baby Show " should 
come just before supper. At supper bibs are 
used instead of napkins — those printed with 
outline pictures and appropriate inscriptions, 
such as "Our Pet," "For a Good Girl," etc., 
will be particularly appreciated, and they need 
not be embroidered, but may easily be painted 
in water-colors. If the party is given in sum- 
mer, when out-of-door games are possible, 
''Hide and Seek," "Tag," "Prisoner's Base," 



176 The Book of Games 

and "Base-ball" are only a few of the de- 
lightful and exciting amusements which will 
**make me a child again just for to-night," 
even though the consequences may be "that 
tired feeling " to-morrow. 



PART IV 
OLD FAVORITES FOR CHILDREN 



CIX 

My Lady's Toilet 

Materials Required : A wooden plate or 
circular tray. 

This game is an elaboration of "Spin the 
Platter." Each player chooses the name of 
some article belonging to a lady's toilet, such 
as "mirror," "brush," "hair-pin," "scent- 
bottle," and so on. The leader then takes a 
wooden plate, or any other circular object that 
cannot be easily broken, and twirls it around 
in the centre of the room, on the floor, naming 
at the same time some article from a lady's 
dressing-table. Upon this the player who 
bears the name of that article starts from his 
seat and tries to catch the wooden plate before 
it falls, failing to do which he pays a forfeit 
and takes the spinner's place. If a player can 
catch the plate before it fafls he has no forfeit 
to pay, but takes the spinner's place just as 
though he had failed. The person who spins 



i8o The Book of Games 

the plate generally prefaces the name of the 
article with a sentence like this: "My lady 
is going to the theatre and wants her scent- 
bottle." At this the " scent-bottle " springs up 
and tries to catch the plate. When the word 
** toilet " is spoken by the plate-spinner all the 
players change their seats, and as the spinner 
takes care to secure a place, one player of 
course finds himself without one, and is obliged 
to pay a forfeit and twirl the plate. When the 
game flags the forfeits may be redeemed. 



CX 

Hunt the Whistle 

Materials Requik:ed: One smalllight-w eight 
whistle. 

Someone who has never seen the game 
played is elected hunter; the others form a 
circle, either sitting or standing, around him. 
The hunter, after the whistle has been shown to 
him, is blindfolded until it is concealed. While 
his eyes are closed the whistle is very carefully 
attached to the back of his coat by means of a 



Bookbinder i8i 

string and a bent pin. He may now unbandage 
his eyes. One of the players to whom his 
back is turned then blows the whistle and drops 
it, and the hunter is told to try and find it ; 
but this is no easy matter, as he carries the 
object of his search about with him. As op- 
portunities occur different players blow the 
whistle and then drop it. The hunter is some- 
times fairly tired out before he discovers the 
trick that is being played on him. It is scarce- 
ly necessary to say that the whistle should be 
very small and light. 



CXI 

Bookbinder 



The company is seated in the form of a cir- 
cle, except one person for leader, who stands 
in the centre. Each person extends both hands 
together, palms upward, and on each one's out- 
stretched hands a book is placed. The leader 
then proceeds arounds the circle and suddenly 
snatches one of the books, trying to strike with 
it the hands upon which it rested before they 



1 82 The Book of Games 

can be withdrawn. If successful, the person 
struck must take a turn as leader ; if not, the 
book is replaced and the leader tries again. If 
one's hands are withdrawn because of a feint 
by the leader, or before the book is actually 
caught up, it counts against one the same as if 
struck. 



CXII 

Blowing the Feather 

Materials Required : One large sheet or 
table-cloth ; one feather from a pillow. 

A simple and successful game is the old- 
fashioned one called "Blowing the Feather." 
Having provided a sheet or table-cloth and a 
small feather such as sofa-pillows are stuffed 
with, ask your guests (all but one) to be seated 
on the floor in a hollow square. The table- 
cloth or sheet is then spread so that the players 
can hold the edges of the sides and ends up 
just under their chins, thus stretching the cloth 
taut about a foot and a half above the floor. 
Upon the cloth the small feather is placed, and 
the player who is left out of the square is then 



Magic Music 183 

told that he must do his best to catch it either in 
front of or upon some one of the seated players, 
who will then be obliged to take his place. At 
a signal the players on the floor begin to blow 
and the feather flies hither and thither, never 
resting, while amid much laughter the player 
who is out flies hither and thither too until he 
catches it at last on some unwary individual 
or someone too weak from laughing to blow 
quickly and eifectively. 



CXIII 
MAGIC Music 



This old-fashioned game is so generally 
known that it seems hardly necessary to de- 
scribe it, yet it is so useful for certain occa- 
sions that it is admitted here more as a re- 
minder than a description. One player having 
been sent from the room, the others arrange 
something for him to do upon his return. 
When all are agreed upon what the action 
is to be the out-player is summoned by magic 
music, which is made by one of the other play- 



184 The Book of Games 

ers, either by tapping some metal object with 
a key or by rattling shovel and tongs together. 
The person who has been out of the room must 
perform the appointed task as he is guided by 
the musician, who so regulates the music that 
the sounds are loud and noisy when the puz- 
zled player does what he ought not and soft 
when he begins to do anything like the per- 
formance of his task. 

To be more explicit, we will suppose the 
thing to do is to take a sofa-pillow and put 
it behind a certain lady's back. The player 
entering is greeted by the confusing magic 
music, which at first bothers him by its clatter. 
He walks toward the divan where the pillow is 
lying, when the music grows faint ; this shows 
that he is going in the right direction. He 
touches a chair, the music grows loud; he 
touches the divan, the music is faint, and ceases 
as he touches the cushion. He now knows 
that he is to do something with the cushion, 
and in turn tries sitting on it, holding it, 
throwing it down in front of someone, but the 
music keeps him informed that no one of these 
is the right action, till he puts it behind a lady, 



Animals 185 

not the one appointed, and the music grows 
very faint. At last he puts it back of the 
right person, and his arduous task is accom- 
plished. The other players may in turn go out 
of the room and have tasks given them, but 
the musician generally keeps his position as 
long as the game lasts. 



CXIV 

Animals 



This is a form of Blindman's-Buff. The 
leader is blindfolded, and the company may 
remain seated or standing about the room. 
The leader proceeds around until he can touch 
some person, when the person touched must 
give an imitation of the noise made by some 
animal — a cat, pig, cow, dog, etc. — repeat- 
ing it three times, if requested; and, from 
the voice, the leader endeavors to name the 
person. If he succeeds, the person named 
must in turn become leader, otherwise he tries 
again. 



1 86 The Book of Games 

cxv 

Trolley-car 

' This game will suggest an old friend — Stage- 
coach. But as travelling by coach is hardly 
up to date we will, instead, go by electricity. 
The players take the following names, as they 
choose, and ^vhenever in the story (which is 
read or simply told by the leader) their names 
are spoken they must make whatever action is 
appropriate to the name, or failing must give 
a forfeit: 

Trolley-car, when spoken of, must rise and turn 
around twice. 

Mat, must rise and stamp twice with the right foot. 

Rails, must rise and hold both arms in front, as the 
rails of a track go. 

Advertisements, must rise and look up, reciting some 
well-known street-car advertisement. 

Straps, must rise and swing as if by straps when the 
car stops with a jerk. 

Conductor, calls the name of a street. 

Bell, must rise and cry " Ding, ding ! " 

Motor-man, must rise and turn imaginary brake. 

Trolley, must rise and drop suddenly into seat. 



Trolley-car 187 

Stove, must rise, sit down on the floor, and rise 
again without touching anything. 

Newsboy, must rise and call " Papers I " 

Electricity, must rise and imitate the fizzing and 
spitting of electric sparks. 

Passengers, must all rise and sit down again. 

The players being seated in a circle the 
leader stands in the centre and begins the 
story, to which all listen attentively, so that 
each person, as his name is spoken, may go 
through the actions assigned to it. When 
the leader cries '* Trolley's off ! '* all the players 
change seats, the leader getting one if he can 
and leaving out one of the other players, who 
tells another story. For example: 

Leader : " Going out to Lonely ville the other even- 
ing, to dine, I took the trolley-car (Trolley-car rises and 
turns around twice) and unfortunately found that every- 
one else seemed to be doing the same thing, for the 
crowd was tremendous and there was hardly foot-room. 
As I pushed my way in I tripped over the mat (Mat 
rises and stamps twice with the right foot) and landed 
on the stove (Stove rises, sits down on the floor, and 
rises again without touching anything). Recovering 
myself and my dress-suit case with an effort, I tried to 
look cold and dignified and gazed up at the advertise- 
ments (Advertisements rises and looks up, reciting some 



1 88 The Book of Games 

familiar advertisement). We bumped along over the 
rails (Rails rises and holds both arms out in front), the 
people swaying against each other as they hung on to 
the straps (Straps rises and swings back and forth by 
imaginary straps). The conductor (Conductor calls the 
name of a street), every time we stopped, called out, 
* Pass right up forward, plenty of room in front,' and of 
course there was plenty of room — on top of the other 
passengers (All rise and sit down again). 

" After one of these stops, as we picked ourselves out 
of the heap of humanity in the forward end of the car, 
we found at the bottom of the pile a small and dirty 
newsboy (Newsboy rises and cries ' Papers ! ') who 
seemed to be crushed to a jelly, but managed to pull 
himself together enough to sell out all his papers to the 
sympathizing crowd. Just then the bell (Bell rises and 
cries * Ding, ding ! ') began to ring violently, we heard 
the motor-man (Motor-man rises and turns brake) cry, 
' Jump for your lives ! ' Thump came the trolley 
(Trolley rises and drops suddenly into his seat) down 
on the top of the car, sparks of electricity (Electricity 
rises and imitates fizzing and spitting of electric sparks) 
lit up the darkness, crash came another car into our 
rear, and we were telescoped, amid shouts of ' Trolley's 
off ! '" (All rise and change seats, and another leader 
begins a story.) 



SOME FORFEITS 

Blow out a Candle Blindfolded: A lighted 
candle is placed on a mantel; the blind- 
folded victim stands with his back to the 
candle, takes five steps forward, turns 
around, advances five steps, and blows out 
the candle — perhaps. 

Walk a Tight Rope: Place a chair at the 
opposite side of the room, take a cane or 
umbrella in your hand, lean down till your 
forehead touches your hand, close your 
eyes, and turn the body around rapidly 
three times, then open your eyes and walk 
straight to the chair. 

Blow a Card Over: Bend over the edges at 
the ends of an ordinary visiting-card, at 
right angles, in the form of a box-lid with- 
out sides, place it on the table on the bent 
edges, so that the air can pass under it, 
then blow it over — if you can. 

Walk around the Room and Bestow a Smile 
on Each Person, in turn. 

Yawn until you Make Someone else Yawn. 



190 The Book of Games 

Bite the Apple: Select a very smooth apple 
and suspend it by a string from a chandelier 
to about the height of the victim's mouth, 
who must, without touching it with the 
hands or otherwise, bite a piece from it. 

Repeat a Verse of Poetry and Count the 
Words. Thus: *' Mary (one) had (two) a 
(three) little (four) lamb (five),'' etc. 

Hobson's Choice : Blacken one end of a cork 
by burning it. The victim, having been 
blindfolded, is asked to choose the right or 
left end (having first been informed that 
one end is black). The end chosen is drawn 
across the forehead or cheek. This is re- 
peated three times, when the bandage is 
removed and a mirror produced. 

Eat a String, Rabbit Fashion : A yard or two 
of clean string is produced, one end placed 
in the mouth and the balance drawn in by 
the lips, etc., without being touched by the 
hands or otherwise. This may be varied 
by tying a bonbon in the middle of the 
string and starting a player at either end. 

Guess Blindfolded who Gives you a Spoonful 
of Water. 



Some Forfeits 191 

Draw a Clock-face: Take a pencil and piece 
of paper, draw a circle, and then insert the 
Roman numerals in the order they follow 
on the face of a watch or clock, without 
of course consulting a timepiece. Keep at 
it until the order is pronounced correct. 

Stand on one Foot and Count a Million. 

Crow like a Rooster. 

Kiss your Shadow on the Wall. 



